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Suggestions for an RPG?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
stolide
Jul 14, 2009 15:07:49 Hey, I'm making a classless percentile based pen and paper rpg and was hoping some people here could tell me some things that they'd like to see in rpgs, or things that they really liked in a specific rpgs. I'll at least implement the better ideas as optional rules, but I'm keeping things relatively simple.

Basic combat works by using your combat skill as your hitpoints, AC and bonuses to hit and damage. So when you take damage, you become less effective. Your bonuses are pretty much the skill divided by ten, so the math is quick and easy. (Just look at the tens place) The play testing has the combats being over in a two to about four rounds. Everyone loved it save for my father who didn't like the fact that magic wasn't powerful enough because although you have unlimited spells, casting to many spells over a short period of time forces you to start making sanity checks for temporary insanity...

I'm not trying to sell the game. It's just for personal use. Currently, it's playing like a comedic version of lovecraft, and I think I'd like to keep it that way. I'm still open to any ideas for any setting. The game is made to work in any setting, save for the fact the sanity is needed to keep the magic from being overpowered as spells are cast as often as you want. You just make a roll and see how well it performs. Obviously increasing probability of insanity prevents this from being too powerful. The insanity works off of a modified version of what's in the d20 srd.

Anyways, thanks for you suggestions. When I feel it's done, or close enough to done, I'll probably post it somewhere on the internet for people to download, play and then whine about. XD
#2
sonia
Jul 14, 2009 20:34:30 Hi,

This is my VERY first post here. I am not a very experienced DnD player. I used to play with my kids, but now they are too busy...

My favorite game was when I was a druid. I was able to change into anything almost and it was fun taking on different forms from ooze to tiger. Plus, I could heal other players.

When I played, I liked that we didn't have to play for a really long time before we leveled up. However, leveling up was always kind of tedious because it wasn't always obvious to me what I was supposed to do. I always needed help with it on my character sheet and the other players sometimes got impatient.

I always wanted my campaings to be more than combat although usually, that was what it mostly involved. I would have wanted to have more discussion with the characters in the game. Maybe a chance to use diplomacy skills and bluffing skills. When I was a druid, I always wanted to interact with creatures and plants in nature, but there never seemed to be room for it in the campagns I played in. As a player, I never figured it out, but would have wanted to.

More later.

Sonia
#3
OleOneEye
Jul 14, 2009 21:56:36 I like for games to have a use for all the different types of dice. I hate it when a game only uses one type of die (particularly if it involves a dice pool).
#4
kreider204
Jul 14, 2009 22:53:20 Are you familiar with any I.C.E. games (Rolemaster, HARP)? They are entirely percentile based and both have "no profession" (i.e., class) options. You might find some inspiration there.
#5
stolide
Jul 15, 2009 7:01:42 Thanks for the input.

Sonia, I personally dislike it when a game has skills for roleplaying. They actually end up discouraging roleplaying. People say things like "I'm bartering. My diplomacy roll is X." rather than actually roleplaying. The leveling up is pretty simple though. You just stick your points in what you want to be better at.

OneEye, why do you desire more than one type of die? Why do you dislike dicepool? My game isn't dicepool, but I'd still would like to know.

Kreider, I know nothing of those games, I'll have to check them out.
#6
sonia
Jul 15, 2009 11:36:35 Hi,

So, if I get what you are saying about the roleplaying is: Instead of using skill checks for diplomacy, it just happens without the skill check? That would be more fun I think!

Like say, in the one situation where we were going into a castle and we said we were friends of the king's. It was a bluff, but it didn't work because we failed our bluff check. So if we played it without the skills check, would it have automatically worked? I'm not sure I understand your explaination.

Sonia
#7
stolide
Jul 15, 2009 12:02:24
Hi,

So, if I get what you are saying about the roleplaying is: Instead of using skill checks for diplomacy, it just happens without the skill check? That would be more fun I think!

Like say, in the one situation where we were going into a castle and we said we were friends of the king's. It was a bluff, but it didn't work because we failed our bluff check. So if we played it without the skills check, would it have automatically worked? I'm not sure I understand your explaination.

Sonia

What I do when I dm any game is do away with roleplaying skills and force them to roleplay. I decide based on the situations at hand and they quality of their roleplaying if they succeed. Sure it gives more power to the dm, but if the dm is someone you want to play with that won't matter anyways.

So someone who tells a stupid lie isn't going to roll a natural 20. Saying "I have a billion gold pieces." when you look like a beggar isn't going to go to well. In 3.5, there is no way to determine if people believe you when you are telling the truth.

Now, doing something with a mediocre chance of success, but very well roleplayed will get you kudos and make you more likely to succeed. But obviously the scenario matters as well.

In your case, it would depend on your lie and how close of friends you were and whether or not you had a reputation for lying. Things like that. If you roleplayed well you'd likely succeed. The players are supposed to succeed most of the time at things in their specialty anyways.
#8
OleOneEye
Jul 15, 2009 18:27:46
OneEye, why do you desire more than one type of die? Why do you dislike dicepool? My game isn't dicepool, but I'd still would like to know.

Completely arbitrary on why I like using lots of different types of dice.

As for dice pools, to me, the whole reason to roll instead of having a dice-less system comes down to the excitement of getting a good roll or a bad one. When rolling one die, the excitement climaxes as soon as the die stops and you know whether it rolled high or low. With dice pools you are dumping down a handful of dice, and so, have to spend precious seconds in calculating whether the roll was good or not. The delay of those few seconds dampens the excitement of rolling high or low.
#9
stolide
Jul 15, 2009 18:50:34 I see. I guess that makes sense. I messed around with some dicepool stylings today and decided that I wanted to go with that anyways. XD

I do have it now where there are other types of dice though. Essentially as you specialize you chose something to go up a die category and another to go down one. At level 10, my old system could not finish a fight between two equally skilled combats. Within 100 rounds, both combatants were within 90% of their original hit points. I set up a spread sheet to test the combat...

However, it is set up to keep the number of rolls down. You sacrifice dice to add a bonus to all the ones you do roll. As you go up in levels you get more dice for things, but things are harder and it makes more sense to drop some rolls. It is a trade off though. Less rolls means a lower maximum number of successes (damage in combat) but a higher probability of one occuring. For easier tasks, you can insure success. Yet against more difficult situations, if you sacrifice enough to be able to succeed, you limit the number of success you get.

I like how it's all turning out so far. I need to do "real" playtesting though to see how well it actually works. Spread sheets are great and all, but they really aren't the same.
#10
sonia
Jul 16, 2009 8:18:02 Hi,

Okay, so that makes sense and sounds like a fun way of playing. I think I woulld like it. The person who does my DM'ing usually does a bluff check versus an intelligence check for the individual who is being bluffed. One time, I tried to bluff a dragon and he just laughed at me. My DM said it was because the dragon was too intellingent to fall for it.

Other dragons are mean. My DM wouldn't let me have any success trying to make a diplomatic deal with one to say...trade a shiny thing for my life. He just had the dragon grab at the shiny thing, say "my shiny thing" and have the dragon start trying to kill me. Wouldn't it have been more fun another way?

By the way, I can't find anyone to play with anymore since the ones I used to play with were my kids. Now they are older and want to play with people thier own age. Is there any way of playing online without revealing a lot of personal info? I am new to this as I said. I think you can roll up characters online.

Sonia
#11
grimgent
Jul 16, 2009 10:32:01
By the way, I can't find anyone to play with anymore since the ones I used to play with were my kids. Now they are older and want to play with people thier own age. Is there any way of playing online without revealing a lot of personal info?

Well, for forum-based gaming there's always RPoL. Simply using IRC could be another option for more immediate responses: all that you need to do is choose an appropriate server and start your own channel if necessary, although actually getting around to playing might require recruiting players from somewhere else first. And then there are the various MU*s, many of which you can browse through over at The MUD Connector.
#12
grimgent
Jul 16, 2009 10:43:37
With dice pools you are dumping down a handful of dice, and so, have to spend precious seconds in calculating whether the roll was good or not. The delay of those few seconds dampens the excitement of rolling high or low.

That does depend substantially on the mechanical details, though. For example, in the current Storytelling System used in The World of Darkness by White Wolf you typically might roll perhaps six d10s and succeed if even a single one of them comes up with an eight or better. Checking that result at a glance doesn't really take much time at all.
#13
stolide
Jul 16, 2009 13:10:01 I've tweaked it a bit. (Entirely overhauled :P ) and posted a link to the website in my sig. If anyone get's around to reading or even playing it I'd love to hear what they think of it, including what's wrong with it.

Although it is dicepool, I have ways in there of preventing higher level characters from rolling mountains of dice. At higher difficulties you realistically must roll very few dice to succeed.

http://quomodo.weebly.com/
#14
sonia
Jul 17, 2009 17:25:21 Hi,

I went to that link. I like the Suessian idea connected with madness. One could imagine the whole surrealistic setting with all the Seussian trees and such. I think the Bartholomew and the OObleck story would be a great one to put in there. Did you ever read that one? Oobleck is kind of like ooze and in the story, it overuns the castle and the entire kingdom. Lots of possibilities for DnD fun there I think!

I thought when I went to that link at first that you meant it was for actualy playing a game online, but it seems like its main purpose is to provide ideas.

In response to your multiple dice rolling discussion: when we played and needed multiple dice rolling, sometimes, we would use the option of using a calculator to average out the results instead of rolling each one.

Sonia
#15
stolide
Jul 17, 2009 20:55:29 I never meant for this to be played online. Most of the time it will just be played by my family and friends. I saw no harm in posting it on the off chance someone else derrives some use from it.

I put those setting ideas there because I hate it when a system doesn't have any settings or even suggestions. It's also annoying when the setting provided is the same one in half the rpgs out there, space opera or high fantasy. The latter suggestion in there could even be run as the player's being Lovecraft's old ones. That would certainly be a reversal of roles...

I vaguely remember reading that as a kid. I imagine that one where they use crazy butter based weapons could make for an interesting game as well.

Thanks for the feedback by the way.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 stolide Jul 14, 2009 15:07:49	Hey, I'm making a classless percentile based pen and paper rpg and was hoping some people here could tell me some things that they'd like to see in rpgs, or things that they really liked in a specific rpgs. I'll at least implement the better ideas as optional rules, but I'm keeping things relatively simple. Basic combat works by using your combat skill as your hitpoints, AC and bonuses to hit and damage. So when you take damage, you become less effective. Your bonuses are pretty much the skill divided by ten, so the math is quick and easy. (Just look at the tens place) The play testing has the combats being over in a two to about four rounds. Everyone loved it save for my father who didn't like the fact that magic wasn't powerful enough because although you have unlimited spells, casting to many spells over a short period of time forces you to start making sanity checks for temporary insanity... I'm not trying to sell the game. It's just for personal use. Currently, it's playing like a comedic version of lovecraft, and I think I'd like to keep it that way. I'm still open to any ideas for any setting. The game is made to work in any setting, save for the fact the sanity is needed to keep the magic from being overpowered as spells are cast as often as you want. You just make a roll and see how well it performs. Obviously increasing probability of insanity prevents this from being too powerful. The insanity works off of a modified version of what's in the d20 srd. Anyways, thanks for you suggestions. When I feel it's done, or close enough to done, I'll probably post it somewhere on the internet for people to download, play and then whine about. XD
#2 sonia Jul 14, 2009 20:34:30	Hi, This is my VERY first post here. I am not a very experienced DnD player. I used to play with my kids, but now they are too busy... My favorite game was when I was a druid. I was able to change into anything almost and it was fun taking on different forms from ooze to tiger. Plus, I could heal other players. When I played, I liked that we didn't have to play for a really long time before we leveled up. However, leveling up was always kind of tedious because it wasn't always obvious to me what I was supposed to do. I always needed help with it on my character sheet and the other players sometimes got impatient. I always wanted my campaings to be more than combat although usually, that was what it mostly involved. I would have wanted to have more discussion with the characters in the game. Maybe a chance to use diplomacy skills and bluffing skills. When I was a druid, I always wanted to interact with creatures and plants in nature, but there never seemed to be room for it in the campagns I played in. As a player, I never figured it out, but would have wanted to. More later. Sonia
#3 OleOneEye Jul 14, 2009 21:56:36	I like for games to have a use for all the different types of dice. I hate it when a game only uses one type of die (particularly if it involves a dice pool).
#4 kreider204 Jul 14, 2009 22:53:20	Are you familiar with any I.C.E. games (Rolemaster, HARP)? They are entirely percentile based and both have "no profession" (i.e., class) options. You might find some inspiration there.
#5 stolide Jul 15, 2009 7:01:42	Thanks for the input. Sonia, I personally dislike it when a game has skills for roleplaying. They actually end up discouraging roleplaying. People say things like "I'm bartering. My diplomacy roll is X." rather than actually roleplaying. The leveling up is pretty simple though. You just stick your points in what you want to be better at. OneEye, why do you desire more than one type of die? Why do you dislike dicepool? My game isn't dicepool, but I'd still would like to know. Kreider, I know nothing of those games, I'll have to check them out.
#6 sonia Jul 15, 2009 11:36:35	Hi, So, if I get what you are saying about the roleplaying is: Instead of using skill checks for diplomacy, it just happens without the skill check? That would be more fun I think! Like say, in the one situation where we were going into a castle and we said we were friends of the king's. It was a bluff, but it didn't work because we failed our bluff check. So if we played it without the skills check, would it have automatically worked? I'm not sure I understand your explaination. Sonia
#7 stolide Jul 15, 2009 12:02:24	Hi, So, if I get what you are saying about the roleplaying is: Instead of using skill checks for diplomacy, it just happens without the skill check? That would be more fun I think! Like say, in the one situation where we were going into a castle and we said we were friends of the king's. It was a bluff, but it didn't work because we failed our bluff check. So if we played it without the skills check, would it have automatically worked? I'm not sure I understand your explaination. Sonia What I do when I dm any game is do away with roleplaying skills and force them to roleplay. I decide based on the situations at hand and they quality of their roleplaying if they succeed. Sure it gives more power to the dm, but if the dm is someone you want to play with that won't matter anyways. So someone who tells a stupid lie isn't going to roll a natural 20. Saying "I have a billion gold pieces." when you look like a beggar isn't going to go to well. In 3.5, there is no way to determine if people believe you when you are telling the truth. Now, doing something with a mediocre chance of success, but very well roleplayed will get you kudos and make you more likely to succeed. But obviously the scenario matters as well. In your case, it would depend on your lie and how close of friends you were and whether or not you had a reputation for lying. Things like that. If you roleplayed well you'd likely succeed. The players are supposed to succeed most of the time at things in their specialty anyways.
#8 OleOneEye Jul 15, 2009 18:27:46	OneEye, why do you desire more than one type of die? Why do you dislike dicepool? My game isn't dicepool, but I'd still would like to know. Completely arbitrary on why I like using lots of different types of dice. As for dice pools, to me, the whole reason to roll instead of having a dice-less system comes down to the excitement of getting a good roll or a bad one. When rolling one die, the excitement climaxes as soon as the die stops and you know whether it rolled high or low. With dice pools you are dumping down a handful of dice, and so, have to spend precious seconds in calculating whether the roll was good or not. The delay of those few seconds dampens the excitement of rolling high or low.
#9 stolide Jul 15, 2009 18:50:34	I see. I guess that makes sense. I messed around with some dicepool stylings today and decided that I wanted to go with that anyways. XD I do have it now where there are other types of dice though. Essentially as you specialize you chose something to go up a die category and another to go down one. At level 10, my old system could not finish a fight between two equally skilled combats. Within 100 rounds, both combatants were within 90% of their original hit points. I set up a spread sheet to test the combat... However, it is set up to keep the number of rolls down. You sacrifice dice to add a bonus to all the ones you do roll. As you go up in levels you get more dice for things, but things are harder and it makes more sense to drop some rolls. It is a trade off though. Less rolls means a lower maximum number of successes (damage in combat) but a higher probability of one occuring. For easier tasks, you can insure success. Yet against more difficult situations, if you sacrifice enough to be able to succeed, you limit the number of success you get. I like how it's all turning out so far. I need to do "real" playtesting though to see how well it actually works. Spread sheets are great and all, but they really aren't the same.
#10 sonia Jul 16, 2009 8:18:02	Hi, Okay, so that makes sense and sounds like a fun way of playing. I think I woulld like it. The person who does my DM'ing usually does a bluff check versus an intelligence check for the individual who is being bluffed. One time, I tried to bluff a dragon and he just laughed at me. My DM said it was because the dragon was too intellingent to fall for it. Other dragons are mean. My DM wouldn't let me have any success trying to make a diplomatic deal with one to say...trade a shiny thing for my life. He just had the dragon grab at the shiny thing, say "my shiny thing" and have the dragon start trying to kill me. Wouldn't it have been more fun another way? By the way, I can't find anyone to play with anymore since the ones I used to play with were my kids. Now they are older and want to play with people thier own age. Is there any way of playing online without revealing a lot of personal info? I am new to this as I said. I think you can roll up characters online. Sonia
#11 grimgent Jul 16, 2009 10:32:01	By the way, I can't find anyone to play with anymore since the ones I used to play with were my kids. Now they are older and want to play with people thier own age. Is there any way of playing online without revealing a lot of personal info? Well, for forum-based gaming there's always RPoL. Simply using IRC could be another option for more immediate responses: all that you need to do is choose an appropriate server and start your own channel if necessary, although actually getting around to playing might require recruiting players from somewhere else first. And then there are the various MUs, many of which you can browse through over at The MUD Connector*.
#12 grimgent Jul 16, 2009 10:43:37	With dice pools you are dumping down a handful of dice, and so, have to spend precious seconds in calculating whether the roll was good or not. The delay of those few seconds dampens the excitement of rolling high or low. That does depend substantially on the mechanical details, though. For example, in the current Storytelling System used in The World of Darkness by White Wolf you typically might roll perhaps six d10s and succeed if even a single one of them comes up with an eight or better. Checking that result at a glance doesn't really take much time at all.
#13 stolide Jul 16, 2009 13:10:01	I've tweaked it a bit. (Entirely overhauled :P ) and posted a link to the website in my sig. If anyone get's around to reading or even playing it I'd love to hear what they think of it, including what's wrong with it. Although it is dicepool, I have ways in there of preventing higher level characters from rolling mountains of dice. At higher difficulties you realistically must roll very few dice to succeed. http://quomodo.weebly.com/
#14 sonia Jul 17, 2009 17:25:21	Hi, I went to that link. I like the Suessian idea connected with madness. One could imagine the whole surrealistic setting with all the Seussian trees and such. I think the Bartholomew and the OObleck story would be a great one to put in there. Did you ever read that one? Oobleck is kind of like ooze and in the story, it overuns the castle and the entire kingdom. Lots of possibilities for DnD fun there I think! I thought when I went to that link at first that you meant it was for actualy playing a game online, but it seems like its main purpose is to provide ideas. In response to your multiple dice rolling discussion: when we played and needed multiple dice rolling, sometimes, we would use the option of using a calculator to average out the results instead of rolling each one. Sonia
#15 stolide Jul 17, 2009 20:55:29	I never meant for this to be played online. Most of the time it will just be played by my family and friends. I saw no harm in posting it on the off chance someone else derrives some use from it. I put those setting ideas there because I hate it when a system doesn't have any settings or even suggestions. It's also annoying when the setting provided is the same one in half the rpgs out there, space opera or high fantasy. The latter suggestion in there could even be run as the player's being Lovecraft's old ones. That would certainly be a reversal of roles... I vaguely remember reading that as a kid. I imagine that one where they use crazy butter based weapons could make for an interesting game as well. Thanks for the feedback by the way.