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AeonWarior
2010-03-23, 04:35 PM
I for a project in my high-school class am making a pen and paper system from almost scratch, I have the more basic rules down already I mostly need to put down options, feats, items, etc. Well I thought seeing the playground about helping me balance and suggest things for this.

My setting: I wasn't content with the common Tolkien fantasy setup mainly because The PC's where hero's or mercenaries not adventurers in the sense that an adventure involves the unknown or exploration, or at least that sense of wonder about whats out there. I know a fantasy world can cause that for the players, but what about the people in the world in question. I want to capture the feeling of adventure. I started working on a setting based on earth during the "golden age of exploration" with changes to allow the more mystical elements to shine though. I thought it would work for my needs.

here's the rules that Ive written down

The core mechanic: When a character is presented with a chance of failure roll one twelve sided dice. (hereafter referred to as 1d12 or the dice.) add the result with the bonuses appropriate to the situation. (that we'll be cover in detail later) If the result is grater than a target number, (hereafter referred to as the difficulty) then the action succeeds.

Character creation


Stats: you have 12 points to distribute amongst the following

Strength: how much your character can lift is determined by strength
Dexterity: determines hot quickly your character can react to situations
Endurance: how tough your character is
Perception: a character with a high perception can notice odd things in their environment
Charisma: a person with high charisma can persuade people easer

Skills: you have 20 points for to spend on skills

Melee:
Firearms:
Sneak:
Persuasion:
Resistance:
Craft:
Ride:
Investigation:
Survival:
Medicine:
Athletics:
Awareness:
Dodge:
Diplomacy:



Advantages and flaws: advantages are extra capabilities a character has. You have 10 to start with. (for individual advantages and flaws see trait chapter)

Equipment: characters start with one 5 point item two 3 point items and three 1 point items. (For the value of individual items see the equipment chapter)

Determining variables:

Health: is your endurance*2

Defense: determined by adding your dex and end





Traits


Quick draw:

Prerq: dex 4
Effect: you can draw a weapon as a quick action instead of a normal action.

Weapon focus:

Prerq: str 4 must have a melee weapon
Effect: choose a weapon type, attacks using that weapon gain a +2 circumstance bonus.


its not enough though

Geiger Counter
2010-03-23, 04:53 PM
Just as far as religion goes I expect most of the explorers clerics would be monotheistic (though some might see them as henotheistic) Lawful any, however the many saints available would help diversify the clerics. Where as most of the rest of the world's castors would be druids. Though in the mysterious east there would be more psions and arcane castors. Arcane casters in most of the rest of the world are feared and shunned, although they may have secretive fraternities that have some political clout.

Kallisti
2010-03-23, 09:13 PM
Making an RPG system for a school project? I fully endorse this. Do this.

Zexion
2010-03-23, 09:32 PM
Why no intelligence? Int is very necessary.

AeonWarior
2010-03-23, 11:05 PM
wow I was sure I put intelligence in there, shows me.

as for religion, when making setting its usually an afterthought it depends on if this setting will be an alternate history earth or a new world based on that time period but yes I can see that.

as for classes, while I might in the end use the d20 framework to help organize and expand my project I was thinking of almost completely cutting classes allowing the player to build his or her own from a modular more feat orientated system however that comes with the problem of when do I give new feats at what level or a class like feature.

also I've been toying with the idea of hybridizing the spell point and spell per day magic, in essence you would get so many points per day that you'd spend to prepare spells, of course that presents its own problems.

Kushōsaku
2010-03-24, 06:19 AM
wow I was sure I put intelligence in there, shows me.
Good, I wanted to comment on that, too :smallwink:


as for classes ... I was thinking of almost completely cutting classes allowing the player to build his or her own from a modular more feat orientated system however that comes with the problem of when do I give new feats at what level or a class like feature.
Why not abandon classes and levels all-together? Just give every ability/advantage/feat/skill certain prerequisites and "adventure point" costs - like you apparently did with your items, assigning point values. Adventure points would be your equivalent to XP.
Instead of gaining a level and thus getting several feats, skill points etc, just let the players collet AP they can spend on their abilities as they see it fit. Raising a skill from 0 to 1 would only cost 1 AP, raising it from 3 to 4 might cost 4 AP. You could rule that you cannot raise a skill higher than its base attribute, e.g. if Diplomacy is based on CHA and you have CHA 4, you could only raise your Diplomacy skill to 4 (which might be pretty good nevertheless).
Getting a certain feat - lets say "weapon focus" - costs a fixed amount of AP, eg. 10, depending on how good a feat is. As you can determine how much AP a player can earn per session, you can just set the costs in a relation that fit's your image of balance.
The "big" abilities, like casting magic, would have high AP-cost and serious prerequisites ("arcane magic" INT 5 & 50 AP, "divine magic" CHA 5, 50 AP) and would also require (lots of) time and study. Thus circumstances should also be added as prerequisites.
Fixed classes would become obsolete without unbalancing stuff. As all characters gain similar (limited) amounts of AP each session, they'll automatically focus on whats important to them. Someone who wants to be a mage won't waste AP on weapon skills, and likewise a professional warrior won't invest in magic he'll never use anyway, if he has still many options to explore which improve his combat skills. Special classes like paladins are represented by characters who go both ways, martial and a bit divine :smallwink:


Also I've been toying with the idea of hybridizing the spell point and spell per day magic, in essence you would get so many points per day that you'd spend to prepare spells, of course that presents its own problems.
The "big" abilities like casting magic, could then be raised further. Just divide what aspects are there to improve on, e.g. Spell points, Spell level and Spell check, and figure out an easy subsystem. As a first draft:
- There are 10 Spell levels so you'll be able to use D&D sources. EITHER just move everything up a level: 0 becomes 1 etc. OR just forget about the 0 level spells and have 10 for epic spells. level 0 effects might be available trough alchemy or supernatural gift. You start out with access to spell level 1, and gaining a new spell level simply costs [spell level x 5] AP.
- You can EITHER have a limit to the total number of spells per spell level a magic user can know, e.g. [INT + PER - spell level] or [CHA + PER - spell level], OR you simply allow them to learn everything they can get their hands on. Arcane casters should require scrolls and books (find, buy, steal), divine casters might have to spend AP to gain new prayers, and have to learn them from another priest or by divine inspiration at a holy site. This would make a nice contrast: Arcane casters rely on worldly, material sources as they had to do some book keeping and spend money on their magic. On the bright side they wouldn't need to spend additional AP and could invest it otherwhise. Divine casters would be independent from mundane sources, but had to have spiritual ones. Their magic would be tied to their faith, not to a book, which cannot be taken away that easily - if at all.
- Casting magic requires a check. Difficulty is based on spell level. Depending how your check-system works, assign [1d12 + INT] as roll against [5 + (Spell level x 2)] as difficulty. Have your magic casting ability work as a skill and add its value to the roll. You start with magic skill 1, obviously. Raising that magic skill costs the usual amount of AP - or double because its especially complex.
- Casting a spell you know costs [Spell Level] Spell Points. Your character starts with [INT x magic skill] Spell Points. If you raise your magic skill, your spell points automatically incase. Same for prayers, but with CHA as base.

These are just some rough ideas. The math is yours to figure out, might be unbalanced, just toy with it, if you like the concept.

And one more question out of curiosity: A pen & paper project for high school? Which subject is that? :smallsmile:

Creed
2010-03-24, 06:32 AM
What school do you go to and where can I sign up????
Doing a pen and paper system for school, score!