Would you make some things similar to D&D?
What fun things would you add in yourself?
Guidelines:
1. Only fantasy-based RPGs (no sci-fi, guns, etc.)
2. Must be plausible for a tabletop RPG
3. If you lifted your idea directly from another game, please say so
Your ideas can be as large as entire new systems to as small as a specific item.
Thanks in advance
Sure, it wrecks chaos with balance, and I appreciate that in a game that's heavily based and balanced around combat scenarios (like, say, D&D) that's a problem, but one of the appealing things to me about some RPGs I've tried was that magic wasn't free and easy, it was difficult for your character and bore a price.
It was pretty fun, but probably imbalanced.
I would use a different dice structure than the d20. I think making the d20 the primary dice for most actions makes the game way too variable. No matter how much to set something up, the dice roll typically is more important than anything else.
I would like some sort of morality/alignment system. Some sort of "personality stat" would be nice. I'm not sure how it'd be implemented, but I like the idea of your decisions (in game) affecting your character. (Maybe a better version of the Fallout or Fable karma system.)
Less reliance on magic items, but magic items being pretty excellent. I guess you could make them rare and powerful. But when I imagine a magical world, magic items aren't sitting around in shops and they are very powerful.
I guess those are what come to mind initially. I figure some would be hard to figure out and some would be hard to balance. But I'm no game designer.
But we are more simulationist than gamist.
And no D20's!
It would have a simple, old-school approach to the rules and play style. I would have the rules loose and open-ended so the GM could make judgment calls without having to keep indexing the rulebooks to see that can be done with any given task. I would keep the rules lite, as I have lost my tolerance memorizing thick tomes, and I see game mechanic as an abstract task resolver then an outright reality simulator - I find it easier to make a simple roll and build the situation around that. I would not include price lists, treasure values, encumbrance rules, and game-balance systems, as all that bean-counting gets in the way of crafting a good story, plus things like balanced encounters, by-the-book gaming and problem-salving magic-effects tends to make players lazy, unimaginative, and spoiled (at least that is my experience with many of the 4e gamers I have been playing with). I'm a strong believer in the K.I.S.S. principle.
These days I wouldn't bother trying to make my own system. There are just too many FRPG systems available (both in print and not) tht can be had relatively cheaply. It isn't worth my time to make a new one.
No humans, elves (et al), dwarves, halflings, orcs, goblins, kobolds ... none of the stuff we've seen decade in and decade out.
I would try to go for a sword & sorcery-styled setting, with a general down-play on spell-use, magic items, and inhuman creatures, as well as moral ambiguity. Mind you, there would still be spells, magic items, and unusual monsters, but they would be strange, mysterious, and treated with a lot of superstition - making such things unique would help maintain a degree fear and mystery that is lost on most fantasy games. Without as the trappings typical to traditional fantasy gaming (elves, dragons, magic swords, and such), the focus would be about dealing with other humans, nature, or unearthly supernatural events, all the while relying on ones own wits. The setting would be an open-ended sandbox that allows players to build upon. I would rather have it an ancient-styled (Indian, Mesopotamian, and such) setting then the same played-out medieval-styled bore-fest. I would not be above adding comic book-styled technology into the setting as the remnants of a long lost advanced or alien civilization (this is not unusual to see this sort things in fantasy novels, as it was once common to find devices that boarders between science and magic - more so in '30s pulp yarns). I would not shy away from mature topics like sex, casual nudity, brutality, slavery, racism, and the like, as these things are apart of human history and human nature, and I find that they make for more compelling stories - after all, how interesting would Shakespeare be if everyone was in his yarns were wholesome and everyone lived happily ever after?
It would have a simple, old-school approach to the rules and play style. I would have the rules loose and open-ended so the GM could make judgment calls without having to keep indexing the rulebooks to see that can be done with any given task. I would keep the rules lite, as I have lost my tolerance memorizing thick tomes, and I see game mechanic as an abstract task resolver then an outright reality simulator - I find it easier to make a simple roll and build the situation around that. I would not include price lists, treasure values, encumbrance rules, and game-balance systems, as all that bean-counting gets in the way of crafting a good story, plus things like balanced encounters, by-the-book gaming and problem-salving magic-effects tends to make players lazy, unimaginative, and spoiled (at least that is my experience with many of the 4e gamers I have been playing with). I'm a strong believer in the K.I.S.S. principle.
That, but with pig people instead of humans.
... and learning skills from items ala FF IX or FF: TA style.
Amazingly enough, that aspect of gameplay actually turned me off from those games.
Ugh... I don't remember FFIX being bad, but having to find just the one item in Tactics Advance to get a skill was annoying, especially when it was only availible on one item that only appeared one time and you had to steal it to get it, and if you didn't know about it, you were screwed on that skill.
I say just let you learn skills from multiple items.
... and learning skills from items ala FF IX or FF: TA style.
Amazingly enough, that aspect of gameplay actually turned me off from those games.
That, and many of the other aspects from the games turns me off like Kirstie Alley at an all-you-can-eat dive. *belch* What can I say about the games that has not already been said on VG Cats?
Magic fueled abilities should be stronger than non-magic abilities (im4ehb,eg: no bursts/blasts without magic)
Classes (if you even use classes) should function differently (im4ehb, eg: I tailor each player's character to fit their style and to fit with the world. The aforementioned wizard can cast any spell from their spellbook, but it takes a full round's worth of actions and a healing surge to do; barbarians build up rage from being attacked and attacking, which they can expend to deal bonus damage; paladins build up righteousness and zeal based on their enemies ignoring them or them successfully hitting).
I still nominally use 4e as a baseline for balance and encounter design (it does handle combat in an interesting way), but really the PCs are different (from everyone else and each other). I have a lot of open minded players who love tinkering with rulesets, even from session to session. We've used 3d6, d20s, 2d10s, and even playing cards for action resolution systems.
I'm not even sure a class/level-based structure is the "best" for immersion-friendly simulationism. Skill based with specializations/powers is probably superior for that. I like the Savage World system quite a bit. It's hard to separate mechanics from fluff with all the Dings and Grats going on in a level-based system (just my opinion, definitely not a jab at 4e specifically; all D&D editions and any class and level based system would suffer from this).
It would look a lot like Shadowrun 3E, but a high magic, heroic fantasy setting, instead of IN THE FUTURE ALL IS GRIMDARK, ALSO PINK MOHAWKS.
Also, it would use d24s.
I'd have a more dynamic magic system where if you want magic you craft your own spells using a point buy system, like a wizard class each level could take a certain number of points to build spells with Id also have a point system for using them, the more points you use to craft a spell the more points it takes to cast said spell. Non caster classes could get spell points as a feat but it would be fewer points, a caster to cast a spell if he does not have spell points could use hit points to fuel the spell instead. I would have a healing surge system like dnd 4e has because I like that idea.
Edit: Each caster class would have some features that are basically at will spells they can use when at zero mana. One of the abilities they could take each level rather than spending points to build spells they could upgrade said spells but using an upgrade would drain a certain amount of mana or something so that the amount of spells you have is up to the character. The non caster classes would have different things they could do at different levels not sure how Id balance them out with the spells..
"Check to see if you can climb that wall."
Rogue climbing specialist: "I rolled a nat 1 + 50 for my skills"
Nearly invalid wizard: "I rolled a natural 100! Subtracting my penalties that gives me 60!"
At the top of the wall you see a housecat. It doesn't like you in its territory so it goes to claw you. Opposed rolls! Wizard gets 1 Cat gets 100. Cat kills wizard.
And so on. Extreme examples based on a theoretical system I haven't seen, but bell curves are typically more sensible...
Not to critique percentiles and opposed rolls, but that would be a very swingy game... :P
"Check to see if you can climb that wall."
Rogue climbing specialist: "I rolled a nat 1 + 50 for my skills"
Nearly invalid wizard: "I rolled a natural 100! Subtracting my penalties that gives me 60!"
At the top of the wall you see a housecat. It doesn't like you in its territory so it goes to claw you. Opposed rolls! Wizard gets 1 Cat gets 100. Cat kills wizard.
And so on. Extreme examples based on a theoretical system I haven't seen, but bell curves are typically more sensible...
it was a barley thought out idea, obviously characters would have modifiers added to the rolls maybe a straight d10 would be better than percentile rolls..
If you want a bell curve, then you roll multiple dice and sum the results. Roll two d10s or four d6s or something. The more dice you use, the larger the "hump" will be on your bell curve (that is, results will trend towards the average. The fewer dice you use, the more spread out the "hump" will be until it becomes a flat line at one dice/uniform distribution.
Um... anytime you only roll one dice...
The singular of dice is die.
Um... anytime you only roll one dice...
The singular of dice is die.
Lol.
I love hanging out with nerds.
========
To the original point: Yes, I would assume the bonuses on percentiles would be modified by relatively accurate bonuses/penalties, its just the swing would feel more pronounced in some cases.
The rogue/wizard example above would be roughly the same as a rogue with a +9 bonus and a wizard with a -8 rolling a natural 1 and a natural 20 respectively.
I prefer bell curves for opposed rolls, since the training of the opponents would actually matter more than the luck of the roll, but there is still a bit of luck involved.
I made a system for 4e that uses 3d6 with lots of yahtzee-esque rules thrown in for good measure. Such as any result of a natural 7 threatened a critical hit (you had to confirm it), and if you rolled a natural 17 or 18 you continued to add additional d6s until you didn't roll a 5 or a 6. For every 7 you exceeded the target it would give you action points. You used action points to increase rolls (invite a d6 to the roll) or increase damage (2 points would maximize W damage).
The weird thing about my home-made system is that a few months later I found Savage Worlds, where they had a very similar system, though without a bell curve...
What would you want to see in it?
Would you make some things similar to D&D?
What fun things would you add in yourself?
Guidelines:
1. Only fantasy-based RPGs (no sci-fi, guns, etc.)
2. Must be plausible for a tabletop RPG
3. If you lifted your idea directly from another game, please say so
Your ideas can be as large as entire new systems to as small as a specific item.
Thanks in advance
I would just like to see more campaign settings ,and weird items for 4th ed ...
I wish they would scrap the craptastic essentials amd finish what they started .Issue the power books we were promised. Bring back spelljammer.
Guidelines:
1. Only fantasy-based RPGs (no sci-fi, guns, etc.)
The inclusion of guns doesn't make it not Fantasy.
There are really two distinct elements to this, the technical and the creative.
Technical (aka. Crunch) (this is largely off the top of my head so it may not all hold together and some of it might contradict other bits)
I would make a percentile-based system. Percentiles are easily understood by anyone beyond age 10 and it thus makes the game more approachable.
I would like to mitigate the value of randomness in the system. While I appreciate that chance is always a factor, I think D&D places too high a reliance on the chance element. Chance should modify the character's innate abilities, not the other way round. To this end what dice a character rolls to perform a task will vary based on his class. For example, a Fighter might roll a d20 to add to his melee attack while a Mage might only roll a d4.
There would be three levels of detail to character abilities - basic, intermediate, and advanced. For example, the basic level for a Fighter might just list their ability to use weapons, the intermediate would break weapons down into classes or types, while the advanced would further divide into individual weapons. This allows experienced and advanced players a high degree of customization and fine-tuning of their PC while still keeping it simple for newer or less-experienced players at the same time. Players can also mix it up, delving into the advanced levels in area which interest them or are pertinent to their PC but sticking with the Basic levels for stuff that doesn't much interest or apply to them.
There would still be classes but they would be much less restrictive and narrowly-defined than in D&D. Ones class would define certain characteristics, such as which dice to use for what as discussed earlier, and would give the PC access to certain unique class abilities, but for the most part the system would be skill-based and much more open.
The number of classes would be quite small, probably between 4 and 8. Actually, 9 might work best, set up kinda like the D&D alignment wheel: 4 core classes (warrior, mage, rogue, and cleric perhaps), 4 hybrid classes, and one central "neutral" class which with no class-specific abilities but total freedom to build a skill-based PC. The skill system and versatility, however, would mean you could work from one of these core basic class to build any type of PC you want.
There would be two damage tracks, one representing fatigue and a much smaller one representing actual damage. This basically mirrors the idea behind the D&D hit point system. Most damage and many actions, including spell casting, reduce the fatigue track. Critical hits, and any damage struck when the fatigue track is exhausted, come off the actual damage track. A character reduced to 0 fatigue is down - either unconscious or helpless- while a PC reduced to 0 actual damage is dead. Fatigue returns much faster than actual damage.
Those are the only major "bones" of the system things that occur to me ATM. I'm sure there's more.
Creative (aka Fluff) (this is based on a game setting I was developing several years ago but haven't down anything with in ages)
The setting includes the "standard" fantasy races, though not necessarily in the standard way. Elves, for example, once ruled the world in a massive Roman-style empire. Their empire is in heavy decline now, though, and they are much hated among their former subjects. Dwarves are not Scottish. Halflings have no nation of their own and have been absorbed into human society.
I prefer games without clear-cut black-and-white morality, where it is not so easy to know who is friend and who foe. Races like orcs, goblins, etc. are not the evil monstrous "them" waiting around to get killed and have their treasure taken, instead they are akin to other ethnic groups and nations in our own world. Once would be just a likely to have and orc companion on a quest to root out a band of villainous human bandits as they are to raid an orc den in the company of elves.
In many fantasy settings/games there is rich cultural diversity among humans but most other races are pretty most of a single culture. In this setting humans are less culturally diverse. Instead the world is racially diverse with the other races representing what are normally seen as different human cultures (Elves/Roman, Dwarves/Germanic, Orcs/Pacific Islanders, Goblins/Native Americans, etc.) These are not 1 to 1 copies, just rough analogues to give players a cultural "hook".
As to the world itself has experienced an industrial revolution and is a bit more Victorian than Medieval in flavour. It is a little like Azeroth (World of Warcraft), a little like The City (Thief), and a little like Albion (Fable). Guns are commonplace (having supplanted crossbows and using crossbow stats), complex machinery both mechanical and magical (printing presses, trains, factories) is relatively common, etc. This only applies to the most prosperous and advanced nations, though. There are many areas just as wild, savage or medieval as any given D&D game and many levels and layers in between.
This is a really slapdash overview of some of it pulled at random from the recesses of my brain, hope it makes some sort of sense.
Cheers.
So if you ever make a game, I'll definately at least check it out!
Guidelines:
1. Only fantasy-based RPGs (no sci-fi, guns, etc.)
The inclusion of guns doesn't make it not Fantasy.
There are really two distinct elements to this, the technical and the creative.
Technical (aka. Crunch) (this is largely off the top of my head so it may not all hold together and some of it might contradict other bits)
I would make a percentile-based system. Percentiles are easily understood by anyone beyond age 10 and it thus makes the game more approachable.
I would like to mitigate the value of randomness in the system. While I appreciate that chance is always a factor, I think D&D places too high a reliance on the chance element. Chance should modify the character's innate abilities, not the other way round. To this end what dice a character rolls to perform a task will vary based on his class. For example, a Fighter might roll a d20 to add to his melee attack while a Mage might only roll a d4.
There would be three levels of detail to character abilities - basic, intermediate, and advanced. For example, the basic level for a Fighter might just list their ability to use weapons, the intermediate would break weapons down into classes or types, while the advanced would further divide into individual weapons. This allows experienced and advanced players a high degree of customization and fine-tuning of their PC while still keeping it simple for newer or less-experienced players at the same time. Players can also mix it up, delving into the advanced levels in area which interest them or are pertinent to their PC but sticking with the Basic levels for stuff that doesn't much interest or apply to them.
There would still be classes but they would be much less restrictive and narrowly-defined than in D&D. Ones class would define certain characteristics, such as which dice to use for what as discussed earlier, and would give the PC access to certain unique class abilities, but for the most part the system would be skill-based and much more open.
The number of classes would be quite small, probably between 4 and 8. Actually, 9 might work best, set up kinda like the D&D alignment wheel: 4 core classes (warrior, mage, rogue, and cleric perhaps), 4 hybrid classes, and one central "neutral" class which with no class-specific abilities but total freedom to build a skill-based PC. The skill system and versatility, however, would mean you could work from one of these core basic class to build any type of PC you want.
There would be two damage tracks, one representing fatigue and a much smaller one representing actual damage. This basically mirrors the idea behind the D&D hit point system. Most damage and many actions, including spell casting, reduce the fatigue track. Critical hits, and any damage struck when the fatigue track is exhausted, come off the actual damage track. A character reduced to 0 fatigue is down - either unconscious or helpless- while a PC reduced to 0 actual damage is dead. Fatigue returns much faster than actual damage.
Those are the only major "bones" of the system things that occur to me ATM. I'm sure there's more.
Creative (aka Fluff) (this is based on a game setting I was developing several years ago but haven't down anything with in ages)
The setting includes the "standard" fantasy races, though not necessarily in the standard way. Elves, for example, once ruled the world in a massive Roman-style empire. Their empire is in heavy decline now, though, and they are much hated among their former subjects. Dwarves are not Scottish. Halflings have no nation of their own and have been absorbed into human society.
I prefer games without clear-cut black-and-white morality, where it is not so easy to know who is friend and who foe. Races like orcs, goblins, etc. are not the evil monstrous "them" waiting around to get killed and have their treasure taken, instead they are akin to other ethnic groups and nations in our own world. Once would be just a likely to have and orc companion on a quest to root out a band of villainous human bandits as they are to raid an orc den in the company of elves.
In many fantasy settings/games there is rich cultural diversity among humans but most other races are pretty most of a single culture. In this setting humans are less culturally diverse. Instead the world is racially diverse with the other races representing what are normally seen as different human cultures (Elves/Roman, Dwarves/Germanic, Orcs/Pacific Islanders, Goblins/Native Americans, etc.) These are not 1 to 1 copies, just rough analogues to give players a cultural "hook".
As to the world itself has experienced an industrial revolution and is a bit more Victorian than Medieval in flavour. It is a little like Azeroth (World of Warcraft), a little like The City (Thief), and a little like Albion (Fable). Guns are commonplace (having supplanted crossbows and using crossbow stats), complex machinery both mechanical and magical (printing presses, trains, factories) is relatively common, etc. This only applies to the most prosperous and advanced nations, though. There are many areas just as wild, savage or medieval as any given D&D game and many levels and layers in between.
Cheers.
You just described a system I've been seriously mulling over in my mind as well as a pretty close approximation of my campaign world...
GTFO Jerk.
Guidelines:
1. Only fantasy-based RPGs (no sci-fi, guns, etc.)
The inclusion of guns doesn't make it not Fantasy.
There are really two distinct elements to this, the technical and the creative.
Technical (aka. Crunch) (this is largely off the top of my head so it may not all hold together and some of it might contradict other bits)
I would make a percentile-based system. Percentiles are easily understood by anyone beyond age 10 and it thus makes the game more approachable.
I would like to mitigate the value of randomness in the system. While I appreciate that chance is always a factor, I think D&D places too high a reliance on the chance element. Chance should modify the character's innate abilities, not the other way round. To this end what dice a character rolls to perform a task will vary based on his class. For example, a Fighter might roll a d20 to add to his melee attack while a Mage might only roll a d4.
There would be three levels of detail to character abilities - basic, intermediate, and advanced. For example, the basic level for a Fighter might just list their ability to use weapons, the intermediate would break weapons down into classes or types, while the advanced would further divide into individual weapons. This allows experienced and advanced players a high degree of customization and fine-tuning of their PC while still keeping it simple for newer or less-experienced players at the same time. Players can also mix it up, delving into the advanced levels in area which interest them or are pertinent to their PC but sticking with the Basic levels for stuff that doesn't much interest or apply to them.
There would still be classes but they would be much less restrictive and narrowly-defined than in D&D. Ones class would define certain characteristics, such as which dice to use for what as discussed earlier, and would give the PC access to certain unique class abilities, but for the most part the system would be skill-based and much more open.
The number of classes would be quite small, probably between 4 and 8. Actually, 9 might work best, set up kinda like the D&D alignment wheel: 4 core classes (warrior, mage, rogue, and cleric perhaps), 4 hybrid classes, and one central "neutral" class which with no class-specific abilities but total freedom to build a skill-based PC. The skill system and versatility, however, would mean you could work from one of these core basic class to build any type of PC you want.
There would be two damage tracks, one representing fatigue and a much smaller one representing actual damage. This basically mirrors the idea behind the D&D hit point system. Most damage and many actions, including spell casting, reduce the fatigue track. Critical hits, and any damage struck when the fatigue track is exhausted, come off the actual damage track. A character reduced to 0 fatigue is down - either unconscious or helpless- while a PC reduced to 0 actual damage is dead. Fatigue returns much faster than actual damage.
Those are the only major "bones" of the system things that occur to me ATM. I'm sure there's more.
Creative (aka Fluff) (this is based on a game setting I was developing several years ago but haven't down anything with in ages)
The setting includes the "standard" fantasy races, though not necessarily in the standard way. Elves, for example, once ruled the world in a massive Roman-style empire. Their empire is in heavy decline now, though, and they are much hated among their former subjects. Dwarves are not Scottish. Halflings have no nation of their own and have been absorbed into human society.
I prefer games without clear-cut black-and-white morality, where it is not so easy to know who is friend and who foe. Races like orcs, goblins, etc. are not the evil monstrous "them" waiting around to get killed and have their treasure taken, instead they are akin to other ethnic groups and nations in our own world. Once would be just a likely to have and orc companion on a quest to root out a band of villainous human bandits as they are to raid an orc den in the company of elves.
In many fantasy settings/games there is rich cultural diversity among humans but most other races are pretty most of a single culture. In this setting humans are less culturally diverse. Instead the world is racially diverse with the other races representing what are normally seen as different human cultures (Elves/Roman, Dwarves/Germanic, Orcs/Pacific Islanders, Goblins/Native Americans, etc.) These are not 1 to 1 copies, just rough analogues to give players a cultural "hook".
As to the world itself has experienced an industrial revolution and is a bit more Victorian than Medieval in flavour. It is a little like Azeroth (World of Warcraft), a little like The City (Thief), and a little like Albion (Fable). Guns are commonplace (having supplanted crossbows and using crossbow stats), complex machinery both mechanical and magical (printing presses, trains, factories) is relatively common, etc. This only applies to the most prosperous and advanced nations, though. There are many areas just as wild, savage or medieval as any given D&D game and many levels and layers in between.
This is a really slapdash overview of some of it pulled at random from the recesses of my brain, hope it makes some sort of sense.
Cheers.
I like it . when does it come out????
I have guns and cannons in my D and D campaign . I used crossbows and skorpions. I just added damage
Guidelines:
1. Only fantasy-based RPGs (no sci-fi, guns, etc.)
The inclusion of guns doesn't make it not Fantasy.
There are really two distinct elements to this, the technical and the creative.
Technical (aka. Crunch) (this is largely off the top of my head so it may not all hold together and some of it might contradict other bits)
I would make a percentile-based system. Percentiles are easily understood by anyone beyond age 10 and it thus makes the game more approachable.
I would like to mitigate the value of randomness in the system. While I appreciate that chance is always a factor, I think D&D places too high a reliance on the chance element. Chance should modify the character's innate abilities, not the other way round. To this end what dice a character rolls to perform a task will vary based on his class. For example, a Fighter might roll a d20 to add to his melee attack while a Mage might only roll a d4.
There would be three levels of detail to character abilities - basic, intermediate, and advanced. For example, the basic level for a Fighter might just list their ability to use weapons, the intermediate would break weapons down into classes or types, while the advanced would further divide into individual weapons. This allows experienced and advanced players a high degree of customization and fine-tuning of their PC while still keeping it simple for newer or less-experienced players at the same time. Players can also mix it up, delving into the advanced levels in area which interest them or are pertinent to their PC but sticking with the Basic levels for stuff that doesn't much interest or apply to them.
There would still be classes but they would be much less restrictive and narrowly-defined than in D&D. Ones class would define certain characteristics, such as which dice to use for what as discussed earlier, and would give the PC access to certain unique class abilities, but for the most part the system would be skill-based and much more open.
The number of classes would be quite small, probably between 4 and 8. Actually, 9 might work best, set up kinda like the D&D alignment wheel: 4 core classes (warrior, mage, rogue, and cleric perhaps), 4 hybrid classes, and one central "neutral" class which with no class-specific abilities but total freedom to build a skill-based PC. The skill system and versatility, however, would mean you could work from one of these core basic class to build any type of PC you want.
There would be two damage tracks, one representing fatigue and a much smaller one representing actual damage. This basically mirrors the idea behind the D&D hit point system. Most damage and many actions, including spell casting, reduce the fatigue track. Critical hits, and any damage struck when the fatigue track is exhausted, come off the actual damage track. A character reduced to 0 fatigue is down - either unconscious or helpless- while a PC reduced to 0 actual damage is dead. Fatigue returns much faster than actual damage.
Those are the only major "bones" of the system things that occur to me ATM. I'm sure there's more.
Creative (aka Fluff) (this is based on a game setting I was developing several years ago but haven't down anything with in ages)
The setting includes the "standard" fantasy races, though not necessarily in the standard way. Elves, for example, once ruled the world in a massive Roman-style empire. Their empire is in heavy decline now, though, and they are much hated among their former subjects. Dwarves are not Scottish. Halflings have no nation of their own and have been absorbed into human society.
I prefer games without clear-cut black-and-white morality, where it is not so easy to know who is friend and who foe. Races like orcs, goblins, etc. are not the evil monstrous "them" waiting around to get killed and have their treasure taken, instead they are akin to other ethnic groups and nations in our own world. Once would be just a likely to have and orc companion on a quest to root out a band of villainous human bandits as they are to raid an orc den in the company of elves.
In many fantasy settings/games there is rich cultural diversity among humans but most other races are pretty most of a single culture. In this setting humans are less culturally diverse. Instead the world is racially diverse with the other races representing what are normally seen as different human cultures (Elves/Roman, Dwarves/Germanic, Orcs/Pacific Islanders, Goblins/Native Americans, etc.) These are not 1 to 1 copies, just rough analogues to give players a cultural "hook".
As to the world itself has experienced an industrial revolution and is a bit more Victorian than Medieval in flavour. It is a little like Azeroth (World of Warcraft), a little like The City (Thief), and a little like Albion (Fable). Guns are commonplace (having supplanted crossbows and using crossbow stats), complex machinery both mechanical and magical (printing presses, trains, factories) is relatively common, etc. This only applies to the most prosperous and advanced nations, though. There are many areas just as wild, savage or medieval as any given D&D game and many levels and layers in between.
This is a really slapdash overview of some of it pulled at random from the recesses of my brain, hope it makes some sort of sense.
Cheers.
You basically just described RoleMaster.
You basically just described RoleMaster.
Hell no. I never really cared much for Rolemaster. I haven't so much as cracked open a single book of it in more than two decades and really don't recall anything about it apart from the huge amount of time required to make a PC and the totally insane open-ended critical charts. I'm not denying I've not been influenced by other RPGs but Rolemaster isn't one of them. My biggest influences are D&D (obviously), WFRP, CP2020 and a wargame (creatively named "Wizards & Warriors") that a roommate and I designed back in '88.
Any similarity is, I assure you, purely coincidental.
The first kernel for this still-embryonic system came from a little hobby project I did back at university (c. 1995) called Dungeonpunk 1020*, a 40-50 page long total conversion of the D&D rules into the Cyberpunk 2020/Interlock system. I no longer have a copy but the process of doing it helped to get all the competing and conflicting ideas for game rules and elements in my head running in the same direction. Sadly I've never really done more with it, just left it milling about in the back of my brain, but I really should just sit down and hash the system out one of these days. Maybe if people on the forums here were willing to playtest I might actually be able to put together a pretty solid system out of it.
*I wonder if this gives me claim to the first use of the term "Dungeonpunk"? :D
Any similarity is, I assure you, purely coincidental.
Coincidental or not, you still basically described RoleMaster... one of my favorite games.
*shrug*
Coincidental or not, you still basically described RoleMaster... one of my favorite games.
Interesting. I'll have to read Rolemaster again…after I write up my own system. ;)
Wow. That's a lot of unnecessary math/bookkeeping.
I spent about 20 minutes yesterday checking out Rolemaster. . .
Wow. That's a lot of unnecessary math/bookkeeping.
That's the reason we called it Rulemaster back in the day. I remember somethign about half-levels in skills, too, though I may be confusing that with another system.
I spent about 20 minutes yesterday checking out Rolemaster. . .
Wow. That's a lot of unnecessary math/bookkeeping.
That's the reason we called it Rulemaster back in the day. I remember somethign about half-levels in skills, too, though I may be confusing that with another system.
Probably D&D3.x :D
I spent about 20 minutes yesterday checking out Rolemaster. . .
Wow. That's a lot of unnecessary math/bookkeeping.
That's the reason we called it Rulemaster back in the day. I remember somethign about half-levels in skills, too, though I may be confusing that with another system.
Probably D&D3.x :D
Uhh...
Comparing the ruleset of D&D 3.x with Rolemaster is like comparing black-cats to hand-grenades.
I spent about 20 minutes yesterday checking out Rolemaster. . .
Wow. That's a lot of unnecessary math/bookkeeping.
That's the reason we called it Rulemaster back in the day. I remember somethign about half-levels in skills, too, though I may be confusing that with another system.
Probably D&D3.x :D
Uhh...
Comparing the ruleset of D&D 3.x with Rolemaster is like comparing black-cats to hand-grenades.
But D&D3.x did have half-levels in skills.
I spent about 20 minutes yesterday checking out Rolemaster. . .
Wow. That's a lot of unnecessary math/bookkeeping.
The newest version isn't that bad, and the GM doesn't have to use everything as written.
A lot of information and tables are presented, but one doesn't have to use it all.
Does Rolemaster have pig people instead of humans?
Only if you want it to...