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View Full Version : How many Homebrewers have created a whole new system?



lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 11:17 AM
I'm curious.

It seems that a lot of the homebrewing here involves modification of existing systems, classes, adventures and such, or the creation of new things within existing systems. I'm interested to know (largely because I did it and find the process to be view-changing) how many of you have created your own systems from whole cloth.

For those of you who have, what were your motivations? How difficult was it? How long did it take, and what style, if any, is your system tailored to?

I'd like to make a list here of all the Homebrew systems I can gather. I'll start with mine in the second comment. (lol)

Links and PDFs are welcome!

Welknair
2011-07-14, 11:18 AM
I'm well along the way of making one of my own.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 11:23 AM
The system I created is called 2d6, after the dice you play it with.

It evolved over the course of several years worth of tinkering by myself and some friends. We had all gotten fed-up with the elaborately complex rules the plague some systems, and I personally was tired of having to look something up every ten or twenty minutes to figure out how s particular spell or combat technique worked.

So we started to make something that was a super bare-bones system. The first goal was to make character creation take up less than an hour. At first, 2d6 was really only good for one-shots, mainly because the leveling system was horribly skewed, but over time we began to run longer, more serious campaigns with it, modifying the rules here and there.

We wanted to make something that could be used for any kind of game, from swords and sorcery to space opera, so we left the rules as open as possible. My plan for the next step is to create a site and a forum for 2d6, where people can gather and share user-generated content. In addition, I'm in the process of working on several example settings for various types of games.

Overall the process has been quite a journey, and though there were a lot of discouraging points along the way, I'm happy with the way things worked out.

That's my story, what's yours?

p.s. the links to a reader and a PDF download are in my sig.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 11:26 AM
I'm well along the way of making one of my own.

Well what's it called? What sort of mechanics does it use? Is it relegated to one genre, or is it open?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Welknair
2011-07-14, 11:33 AM
Mine is called "A Simpler World" and focused around 2d10 added together. I actually had a post on these forums for a while explaining the premise and some of the primary mechanics. But a friend of mine wants me to publish and as such I had to take it down.

I had the original idea years ago. The basic concept is that far in the future we develop a super-computer capable of simulating entire worlds. We then populate the worlds with AIs. The final step is to record said world and watch out for bits that could be made into TV shows and movies.

And then a whole lot of stuff happens. Angels, demons, gods, hackers, glitches and the like.


It wasn't until around 6 months ago that I revisited the idea with the intention of making a system. I'm currently playtesting with my regular group and they're loving it.

The system is meant to be capable of supporting multiple genres and multiple tech levels. Heck, with the rules I currently have it could simulate a soap opera. That was totally accidental.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 11:52 AM
That's a really cool idea! Sort of like a Truman show kind of scenario, but with a sci-fi twist. Are you publishing with any particular press? Or just on your own?

wiimanclassic
2011-07-14, 12:01 PM
Dust made FFd6. Great system.

Welknair
2011-07-14, 12:08 PM
That's a really cool idea! Sort of like a Truman show kind of scenario, but with a sci-fi twist. Are you publishing with any particular press? Or just on your own?

Finally someone that knows the Truman Show!

Planning on using Amazon Createspace.

SamBurke
2011-07-14, 12:14 PM
This is awesome. I actually have my own system. It's very simple. One rule, actually:

There's the GM, and the players. The players explain what they're doing to the GM. The GM decides if it's plausible or not. That's it.

Xefas
2011-07-14, 12:23 PM
Our forum resident, snow_cheetah, made Friendship is Magic, the Tabletop RPG (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10637930), which is fairly good. Nothing that couldn't be fine-tuned with a few years of grueling playtest and revision, but pretty good quality all the same.

Stubbazubba
2011-07-14, 12:28 PM
I'm also in the process of crafting a 2d6-based fantasy simulation game. It's meant to simplify some aspects of D&D while expanding others, making more character types more viable. I use a lot of mechanical ideas from the CODA system from Decipher, Inc., as in their Lord of the Rings TTRPG (no longer supported).

Combat, Parley, and Stealth are (roughly) equally in-depth mini-games, with mechanics for transitioning between each.

Tests are divided between Contests and Tasks; Tasks are 2d6+Skill Rank vs. DC, Contests are 2d6+Skill Rank vs. 2d6+Reaction or 2d6+Skill Rank, depending. Ability Modifiers determine your Reactions, but are not added to rolls directly.

I have class rules, but I'm considering dropping them and going with class-less point-buy character creation. If I keep classes, everyone is a combination of 2 out of 5 archetypes, Warrior, Noble, Mage, Rogue, and Savage. For instance, a character who is a Rogue/Warrior would be an Assassin, while a Rogue/Noble would be a Spy.

Feats are archetype-specific (so you get access to two feat lists) dynamic abilities which expand in scope with a skill rank (in lieu of BAB), much like Combat Feats from Races of War.

Magic is divided into six schools, and a single caster can only learn two schools, and they cannot be opposed schools, to keep caster abilities versatile but not omnipotent. Magic would never be one's only schtick, anyway.

High-level mini-games include Mass Combat and Realm Management, and a friend of mine is tackling these more head-on than I am.

The setting is a Romance of the Three Kingdoms-esque post-Dynastic age of warfare, with the shield that has been protecting the Material Plane from Hell also beginning to falter. Adventures are usually about; establishing stability by eliminating threats to fledgling kingdoms; expansion either through diplomacy, assassination, or sieges (or all three); or investigating the increasing frequency of attacks from extra-planar demons, mysterious evil monks with unnatural abilities, etc., etc.

I have more intricate rules for the hazards of using magic, HP, etc., etc., but since we're planning on trying to publish, I can't reveal anything too specific.

CarpeGuitarrem
2011-07-14, 01:01 PM
I've made enough of a system to release in PDF format *points to link in Signature*, and I have many, many bits of systems clinking around. I made up another system called "Guns and Grit", but that one's waiting to be revamped. It uses only a d4 for randomization, and is based around expending offensive (Guns) and defensive (Grit) resources.

It's taken me about a year to complete Paper Empires in the first alpha form, mainly because I hardly did work on it except here and there. It's been fun, because the basic point of it is "what would empire-building games look like as an RPG?" and so far my answer has been "an RPG inspired by eurogames instead of wargames"...which is interesting. It's like a very odd cousin to D&D et al.

I anticipate making a number of systems in the future, and will probably try 1km1kt's 24-hour RPG challenge. My motivation is generally "this is a really cool idea...I want to make a game out of this."

I'm also working with a friend on a game called the Journey system, focused around breathing new life into the d20 system. Which...we've got some really cool stuff so far. Intending to publish it.

Ursus the Grim
2011-07-14, 01:15 PM
I, erm, attempted to. Like almost everyone, I've got it in my sig. It was supposed to be a Halo wargame that was simple but heavily customizable and didn't require a mediator. Though it can be played entirely with d6, I found myself borrowing from d20 for many things without even thinking about it because its so intuitive for me at this point. Things like the length of a round, range increments, and initiative. Its vastly inferior to anything anyone else has done, but I like it in its current state. Still needs review and playtesting, but I'll get there eventually.

I tried to make it as simple as possible because I realized how difficult it would be to explain to new players otherwise, and how much more difficult it is to balance a complicated system.

YouLostMe
2011-07-14, 01:57 PM
Did somebody say homebrewed systems? (http://www.mediafire.com/?1s0fa195k0l47j0)

This was my high school senior project.

Dryad
2011-07-14, 02:00 PM
I made a whole new system. :)
I want to publish, some day... Still in closed beta testing, though.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 02:13 PM
I tried to make it as simple as possible because I realized how difficult it would be to explain to new players otherwise, and how much more difficult it is to balance a complicated system.

I agree, these were the main reasons I wanted to simplify 2d6. Also, because the simpler a system is, the more versatile it can be, I think.


everyone is a combination of 2 out of 5 archetypes, Warrior, Noble, Mage, Rogue, and Savage.

This is also a really cool idea. I went with a classless system for mine, but I like the idea of picking two to blend instead of just having one or using a traditional multiclassing system.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 02:21 PM
Did somebody say homebrewed systems? (http://www.mediafire.com/?1s0fa195k0l47j0)

This was my high school senior project.

This is interesting, albeit highly specific. I like the litany of classes and the detail you put into the game world, though you might want to watch out for copyright infringement if you ever intend to publish. I think Matt Groening might have a bone to pick with you about the Psychic : )

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 02:29 PM
I've made enough of a system to release in PDF format *points to link in Signature*, and I have many, many bits of systems clinking around. I made up another system called "Guns and Grit", but that one's waiting to be revamped. It uses only a d4 for randomization, and is based around expending offensive (Guns) and defensive (Grit) resources.

It's taken me about a year to complete Paper Empires in the first alpha form, mainly because I hardly did work on it except here and there. It's been fun, because the basic point of it is "what would empire-building games look like as an RPG?" and so far my answer has been "an RPG inspired by eurogames instead of wargames"...which is interesting. It's like a very odd cousin to D&D et al.

I anticipate making a number of systems in the future, and will probably try 1km1kt's 24-hour RPG challenge. My motivation is generally "this is a really cool idea...I want to make a game out of this."

I'm also working with a friend on a game called the Journey system, focused around breathing new life into the d20 system. Which...we've got some really cool stuff so far. Intending to publish it.

This is a really neat idea. I don't know if it technically qualifies as an RPG, though I suppose you are playing the role of the leader. I don't know if you've ever played Settlers of Catan, but you'd probably enjoy it.

elliott20
2011-07-14, 02:52 PM
I actually developed a forum game for playing factions, with the intent of world domination as the goal. The game started out being mostly competitive and strategic, but as we started to playtest it, I found my friends starting to treat the game more and more like a roleplaying game through their posts. Basically, with each move, they would narrate what exactly is happening with their factions.

Later on, I added another part to the game where they can create "heroes" for their factions who serve as leaders and such and basically give the faction bonuses, and because of that, the game started taking on even more of that feel since my friends started to write their posts using their heros' perspectives.

It's not actually very sophisticated, to be honest, and the rules are actually kind of clunky, but it was fun for while it lasted. The drawback of the game was that you need a forum with a dice roller to play it though.

CarpeGuitarrem
2011-07-14, 03:18 PM
This is a really neat idea. I don't know if it technically qualifies as an RPG, though I suppose you are playing the role of the leader. I don't know if you've ever played Settlers of Catan, but you'd probably enjoy it.
Yeah, I've played Settlers...a bunch of other games, too. Carcassonne, Shadow Hunters, Puerto Rico, 7 Wonders, Shogun, Dominion, Arkham Horror (which is mostly an RPG in board game form), Age of Empires III (the board game, not the computer game)...just to name a few. Mostly stuff that doesn't have a huge following in America, but that has really, really unique and elegant mechanics for various things. It helps me put new spins on game mechanics.

I've wrestled a bit with the "is it an RPG?" question...and I've decided that it markets best as a hybrid RPG/strategy game. Like I explain in the opening paragraphs, it's more flexible and open-ended than board games, but it's also more mechanics-focused than many RPGs, and with a different scope.

But I think it's enough to qualify. :smallsmile:

I actually developed a forum game for playing factions, with the intent of world domination as the goal. The game started out being mostly competitive and strategic, but as we started to playtest it, I found my friends starting to treat the game more and more like a roleplaying game through their posts. Basically, with each move, they would narrate what exactly is happening with their factions.

Later on, I added another part to the game where they can create "heroes" for their factions who serve as leaders and such and basically give the faction bonuses, and because of that, the game started taking on even more of that feel since my friends started to write their posts using their heros' perspectives.

It's not actually very sophisticated, to be honest, and the rules are actually kind of clunky, but it was fun for while it lasted. The drawback of the game was that you need a forum with a dice roller to play it though.
Cool! That reminds me of FactionRPG (http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/FactionRPG), which I've played a game of; it's very fun.

elliott20
2011-07-14, 03:26 PM
Cool! That reminds me of FactionRPG (http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/FactionRPG), which I've played a game of; it's very fun.
Wow, just skimming through it I thought it felt INCREDIBLY similar to what I had, but better.

The major difference between my game and this is the presence of a covert factor in faction assets. That actually makes it so much more interesting.

YouLostMe
2011-07-14, 04:17 PM
This is interesting, albeit highly specific. I like the litany of classes and the detail you put into the game world, though you might want to watch out for copyright infringement if you ever intend to publish. I think Matt Groening might have a bone to pick with you about the Psychic : )

Everyone caters to something--there's no such thing as a highly-developed game that doesn't cater to one angle or another. My angle ended up being fantasy heartbreaker.

It's nowhere near high-quality enough to publish, so I didn't worry about that. The quotes are almost all stolen from other things. Just about every quote is taken from something else. I've got a quote from Finding Nemo, Dragonlance, and The Hobbit too.

DiBastet
2011-07-14, 04:36 PM
Once, I had a friend, the girl made dice. She had all kind of dice, and in the rpg cons of life she sold them for a smaller price than the stores. She had jurassic park (with mosquito) dice and some even stranger.

Once she gave me a d30. I had no use to such a stupid thing, then I decided to make a generic system with d30. Actually it was a system for high heroic games that supported many special abilities and you could play many of the (good old) video game rpgs of the time. I and some friends made a subsystem for FFT, Legend of Dragoon and Chronno Cross with it.

The it vanished, someone took it, don't know, and I didn't have the dice to play. Soon the system, with the creation, rules, combat and even stunts, was forgotten and lost to the sands of time.

That is my tale of the d30.

elliott20
2011-07-14, 04:39 PM
Once, I had a friend, the girl made dice. She had all kind of dice, and in the rpg cons of life she sold them for a smaller price than the stores. She had jurassic park (with mosquito) dice and some even stranger.

Once she gave me a d30. I had no use to such a stupid thing, then I decided to make a generic system with d30. Actually it was a system for high heroic games that supported many special abilities and you could play many of the (good old) video game rpgs of the time. I and some friends made a subsystem for FFT, Legend of Dragoon and Chronno Cross with it.

The it vanished, someone took it, don't know, and I didn't have the dice to play. Soon the system, with the creation, rules, combat and even stunts, was forgotten and lost to the sands of time.

That is my tale of the d30.

this actually made me a little sad.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 05:17 PM
this actually made me a little sad.

me too :smallfrown:

Merk
2011-07-14, 05:30 PM
Like many others, I have one "in the works". Featuring: A special set of "Coup de Grace" attacks that work as Limit Breaks, Combination attacks, sanctioned zaniness and weeaboo fightan' magic aplenty.

Yitzi
2011-07-14, 08:21 PM
I'm starting to play around with one (somewhat based on D&D, but with quite a few differences, including the lack of hard limits on spells/day (there are other factors that play a similar balancing role, though, such as the risk of ability burn and/or substantial damage), and the existence of 3 "official" tiers for classes (in between "PC classes" and "NPC classes" are classes that are expected to be used by PCs only through multiclassing...examples of such are the cleric (who's only a half-caster, but generally the most efficient healer) and all Ex-only classes. That's not my main project, though, and won't see play for quite a while.

Zeta Kai
2011-07-14, 09:00 PM
I'm in the process of making a new system. It started as a D20 revision, to fix some problems that I've seen/had with the rule-set, but it ballooned into a rather alien game only tangentially related to the original. It's called HOURS, & it is a d12-based simulationist game (with a 2d6 variant, oddly enough).

lothofkalroth
2011-07-14, 11:27 PM
It's called HOURS, & it is a d12-based simulationist game (with a 2d6 variant, oddly enough).

I initially wanted to go with a d12, but I decided the mechanics of a 2d6 system made more sense to me, since the probabilities are more balanced towards an average outcome, and the more extreme rolls, (as with the more extreme situations in life) become more improbable the farther away from the average you get.

Plus I like the feel of 2d6 in my hand when i roll. Something about the clacking of dice is deeply satisfying. : )

elliott20
2011-07-15, 03:35 AM
I initially wanted to go with a d12, but I decided the mechanics of a 2d6 system made more sense to me, since the probabilities are more balanced towards an average outcome, and the more extreme rolls, (as with the more extreme situations in life) become more improbable the farther away from the average you get.

Plus I like the feel of 2d6 in my hand when i roll. Something about the clacking of dice is deeply satisfying. : )

It's for this reason all of my resolution mechanics have been leaning towards dice pools instead of using bonuses.

YouLostMe
2011-07-15, 09:23 AM
It's for this reason all of my resolution mechanics have been leaning towards dice pools instead of using bonuses.

dicepool > XdY + Z

Blisstake
2011-07-15, 09:36 AM
I made my own 3d6 system. I wrote the rules down for the system as a word document, which I shared with a bunch of my friends. Thankfully a few of them were able to test out more of the system with their gaming group, and I got some playtest info to alter the system a bit.

It's a somewhat simple classless system, where your character is defined by their attributes, abilities, and skills. You can choose your abilities from a list, but there are guidelines on how to make your own... which most people choose to do.

Before I put the thing online, though, it needs a lot of polishing. And a name probably. We just call it 3d6 Adventure System.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-15, 12:15 PM
Before I put the thing online, though, it needs a lot of polishing. And a name probably. We just call it 3d6 Adventure System.

Yeah, I stuck with 2d6 after a lot of other tries. I figure if d20 modern is a good enough name for WotC, 2d6 is good enough for me.

As far as releasing your system goes, I battled with that too. I eventually decided to release mine before it was really finished, and actually I've gotten some very helpful advice, much of it on this forum. I understand what you mean though about wanting to polish it first.

Knaight
2011-07-15, 12:32 PM
I've made a few system overlays (basically high end flow of play structures in which other systems without these can be inserted), and a very crunch minimalist system by the name of Titled. It basically revolved around Titles and their applicability to various situations, and was built to rely heavily on the judgement of the group, while moving very quickly. Essentially, characters had a handful of descriptive titles (Guard Captain, Wandering Swordsman, Exile Heir, whatever), which provided a variable number of dice to roll to situations based on how applicable the title was to the situation (Guard Captain would be highly applicable when ordering guards around for instance, and fairly applicable in a fight. Wandering Swordsman would be fairly applicable in combat, traveling, and knowledge of areas, while highly applicable in the specific situation of a sword fight on a road somewhere, or courtesies with other wanderers with a martial bent, etc.). These were then added to dice provided by attributes.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-15, 01:35 PM
I've made a few system overlays (basically high end flow of play structures in which other systems without these can be inserted), and a very crunch minimalist system by the name of Titled. It basically revolved around Titles and their applicability to various situations, and was built to rely heavily on the judgement of the group, while moving very quickly. Essentially, characters had a handful of descriptive titles (Guard Captain, Wandering Swordsman, Exile Heir, whatever), which provided a variable number of dice to roll to situations based on how applicable the title was to the situation (Guard Captain would be highly applicable when ordering guards around for instance, and fairly applicable in a fight. Wandering Swordsman would be fairly applicable in combat, traveling, and knowledge of areas, while highly applicable in the specific situation of a sword fight on a road somewhere, or courtesies with other wanderers with a martial bent, etc.). These were then added to dice provided by attributes.

This sounds similar in style to Risus, though I actually like the sound of it a little better to be honest. What did you end up doing with it? Still working on it? Or was it left on the back burner for other projects?

Quellian-dyrae
2011-07-15, 01:58 PM
I'm working on one...technically I've "finished" it several times, done some playtesting, but I've never gotten it quite right. Been working on it on and off for...has to be over a decade now (sadly more off than on in recent years). At current, it's more a collection of ideas in my head than even a system alpha. The aim is for a genre-neutral system. M&M is probably the biggest inspiration, I really like their system of powers and Extras.

I'm also aiming to emphasize non-combat capabilities, make sure things like stealth, travel, social interactions, investigations, and the like all have solid rules and a breadth of options for characters who want to specialize in them. Also trying to get scaling right so the game can handle a broad range of power levels without breaking.

Right now I'm leaning towards 2d10+stat, with exploding results on double 10. A lot of effects will probably be based on degree of success, and I'm thinking of having a Guard stat that scales rapidly with power (as does the opposing stat Impact), whereas the stats themselves scale quite slowly, and with certain actions if you fail you can spend Guard based on the opposed Impact to reduce or negate the failure. In combat, this is essentially plot armor or "hit points", but it would apply in most forms of prolonged encounters to make things take more than one roll. It also means that while a high-level character won't necessarily have that much better a success chance than a low-level character, the low-level would have to score more and better successful rolls to actually win, or in a parallel competition would have a smaller margin for error.

Psionic Dog
2011-07-15, 06:12 PM
You can add my name to the list of "systems in progress."

I don't really like the magic/steel balance in any of the high fantasy systems I've seen, and figured it would be better to start from scratch than to try making a 'fix'.

Objectives are to have a rock/paper/scissors like class balance, quick mass combat, slow epic cinematic single combat duals, and high fantasy magic that isn't broken.

It's going to be called 2d12.

edsaurus
2011-07-15, 06:16 PM
I made two new systems with a friend of mine, both based on D20 but with several changes.
One is based upon Monster Hunter, the other one is about Ragnarok Online.
We wrote them in italian, now I'm translating them, I will post them soon.

Knaight
2011-07-15, 06:20 PM
This sounds similar in style to Risus, though I actually like the sound of it a little better to be honest. What did you end up doing with it? Still working on it? Or was it left on the back burner for other projects?

Its entirely playable, and I have the extreme basics written up here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLz59cxeHwXyd8oq1EQ9qB3eZKK1hr54E6igXR-Rlww/edit?hl=en_US). However, the written materials are seriously lacking in editing and refinement.

jiriku
2011-07-15, 06:28 PM
Off the top of my head, Fax Celestis has developed D20R, and the Penny Dreadfuls put together Legend. Both are d20-based descendents of 3.5. Its creator doesn't really post around here, but D20 Advanced, by Jackelope King, is another such descendent.

I attach the "3.5 Remix" label to most of my work, but I wouldn't consider it a new system - it's intended to live entirely within the 3.5 ruleset.

Shadow Lord
2011-07-15, 07:08 PM
Has anyone tried to make a 5d4 game? It makes the average roll at 12-13, but it gives a bell curve so that both high and low numbers get less likely quadratically.

HalfDragonCube
2011-07-15, 07:13 PM
Ummm... For what it's worth, I'm making a peanut-based casting system for 3.5.

Knaight
2011-07-15, 07:29 PM
Has anyone tried to make a 5d4 game? It makes the average roll at 12-13, but it gives a bell curve so that both high and low numbers get less likely quadratically.

4d3 is fairly common, though usually in the form of 4dF (which is essentially 4d3-8).

Dust
2011-07-15, 07:48 PM
I hadn't really ever homebrewed much of anything before starting work on my system. It came about after sitting sitting down for a rousing game of The Returners' Final Fantasy RPG and being absolutely horrified by what a steaming pile it was, while still being played and enjoyed by hundreds of people. I started off by trying to just fix their system as best I could, like a D&D 3.5 overhaul, when the original creator dropped me an email and told me to keep up the good work. A few days later the current big names in the Returners told me to sod off. That was the best motivation I could have asked for to continue.

It was about as much work as I was expecting, and I've gotten a few horror stories during the process. Like the guy who emailed me his collection of hand-drawn Galka and Seeq (http://images-mediawiki-sites.thefullwiki.org/01/1/7/0/83622651575757839.jpg) nudes, for reference purposes. To this day I still have it open as a document on my macbook basically 24/7, and jot down ideas or change things whenever I feel inspired to do so. Which I guess means I put about two minutes a day into it.

When it's 'done,' something that I'm worried will never occur (to this day I adamantly believe that the current release is just utter garbage), I'd like to do something else; I already have an idea that I've extremely excited about churning around in my brain desperate to get put on paper. Mechanics like hit points and so forth have always irked me, but they were so deeply ingrained into canon that I wasn't able to stray from them.

Dust
2011-07-15, 07:52 PM
And I have to say, reading through your 2d6 system right now and I'm pretty impressed. You have a great set of bare-bones here, and I'm especially fond of the 10-step character growth including the Cinematic feature.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-15, 11:32 PM
Wow, I'm surprised this thread got so long! Thanks all of you for your answers, I'm in the process of compiling an actual list with as many links and attributions as I can. I'll publish it when it seems finished-ish.

Keep posting!

lothofkalroth
2011-07-16, 12:20 AM
And I have to say, reading through your 2d6 system right now and I'm pretty impressed. You have a great set of bare-bones here, and I'm especially fond of the 10-step character growth including the Cinematic feature.

Thanks! I toyed around a lot with leveling, but I like the idea of a more free-form, points-based system that just has a cyclical experience track.

DoomHat
2011-07-16, 12:30 AM
The link to one I did a little while back is in my signature.
It's a simple one. If the average RPG system is a novel, mine is a short story.
It took me about a week or so to hammer down. Mostly due to concerns of keeping a consistent tone (important for establishing mood and intended style of play).

Edit:
My advice for writing RPG's is to read them... all of them.
Here, go download everything you can find that's either free or dirt cheap. (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/)

Read reviews of things that are a little more expensive, but look interesting. Expose yourself to as many ways of going about things as possible.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-16, 12:31 AM
Its entirely playable, and I have the extreme basics written up here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dLz59cxeHwXyd8oq1EQ9qB3eZKK1hr54E6igXR-Rlww/edit?hl=en_US). However, the written materials are seriously lacking in editing and refinement.

I like everything about this system except for the attributes. Might seems to broad a category, and Guile seems like a facet of Charm, as though you're singling out one social skill from the others.

Again though, i really like the feel of this, keep up the good work!

lothofkalroth
2011-07-16, 12:34 AM
The link to one I did a little while back is in my signature.
It's a simple one. If the average RPG system is a novel, mine is a short story.
It took me about a week or so to hammer down. Mostly due to concerns of keeping a consistent tone (important for establishing mood and intended style of play).

This only took you a week? Holy crap. I shudder to think how much you could do in all the time I've had. :smalleek:

DoomHat
2011-07-16, 12:42 AM
Go check the edit I made to that last post and you'll find a link that leads to pure heavenly mana.
The secret to creativity is to steal from several different sources all at once. The more different techniques you expose yourself to the more you understand the underlying principles at work behind all of them. It helps you question whether a mechanic is meaningful, of there just because its 'supposed to be'.

Knaight
2011-07-16, 01:14 AM
I like everything about this system except for the attributes. Might seems to broad a category, and Guile seems like a facet of Charm, as though you're singling out one social skill from the others.

It was initially made to tell stories in the spirit of Malory's Arthurian Myth, so Might, Guile, Charm seemed the best fit. Of course, the convenient thing is that you could easily replace all the attributes with whatever you want and call it a day.

lothofkalroth
2011-07-16, 01:05 PM
The secret to creativity is to steal from several different sources all at once.

I believe it was Pablo Picasso who said "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." :smallsmile:

Draz74
2011-07-16, 01:52 PM
Yeah, put me down for "yet another system-in-progress based on D&D/d20." My system, CRE8, is basically, "What I hoped WotC would come out with when they announced 4e." But it's gradually evolved to be quite a unique beast.

The most unique thing about CRE8 compared to other rules-heavy systems (especially d20 systems) is its effort to avoid in-game math as much as possible. (I'm a physicist, I'm relatively comfortable with doing arithmetic in my head ... but my D&D turns still go really slowly when I have to keep track of 5 situational bonuses to my character's AC, and the math-illiterate players at my table are even worse.) So temporary or situational die bonuses in CRE8 are mostly replaced with a system of rerolls and roll replacements.

There are also other changes to limit the amount of bookkeeping needed in the game. For example, I'm working on adapting the d20 Modern Wealth System so that it can work well for a classic high fantasy setting, letting you keep track of treasure in a campaign without designating some poor bloke as the accountant with a spreadsheet.

Other features include:

"Kits" instead of "Classes," which allow a lot more customization of a character concept.
Relatively little numerical power advancement as your character levels up. Most power advancement comes in the form of new special abilities, rather than higher numbers. I feel that makes things more realistic.
A total rework of the Hit Points system ... I can't say much more about this without making this post into a wall of text.
Severe limitations on how many magic items a character can benefit from at a time.
More simulationism than e.g. D&D 4e or Legend.
Magic that is, if anything, weaker than mundane fighting, at present. I might need to buff magic up a little.
A system of per-day and per-encounter resources that makes it impossible to blow through all your per-day resources in a "nova," therefore discouraging the 15-minute workday syndrome.


While there are still areas of the rules that I haven't dared to really dig into yet, such as the Wealth system or the mass combat rules, I'm currently at the stage where I can just write up a bunch of character/monster abilities and playtest them and figure out what needs to be adjusted for balance. So progress is being made. :smallsmile:

The Witch-King
2011-07-16, 03:00 PM
Magic is divided into six schools, and a single caster can only learn two schools, and they cannot be opposed schools, to keep caster abilities versatile but not omnipotent. Magic would never be one's only schtick, anyway.

I really liked this idea and grouped the existing schools into the following opposition pairs:

Evocation vs. Abjuration
Conjuration vs. Transmutation
Divination vs. Illusion
Enchantment vs. Necromancy

It occured to me to bring over from 4e the implements rule where a +3 wand for example provides +3 to hit and damage to spells of a certain type.

I associated the implements as follows:

Evocation/Abjuration (Wand)
Conjuration/Transmutation (Staff)
Divination/Illusion (Orb)
Enchantment/Necromancy (Rod)

I don't think there's a divination spell that does damage and the original idea was to break magic down to six schools anyway so it also occurred to me to merge Illusion and Enchantment since they're both magics of the mind and eliminate divination as a "school" altogether by making it available to all arcane casters (so everybody can use Read Magic and Identify and such).

lothofkalroth
2011-07-16, 03:19 PM
"Kits" instead of "Classes," which allow a lot more customization of a character concept.

I like that many people are moving away from restrictive classes. While I can appreciate them for what they were to the history of gaming, I think they've begun to be a bit outdated as customization has become more popular.

Bagel
2011-07-18, 05:13 PM
Homebrew
Universal
Gaming
Enging
1d10 plus

HUGE 1D10+


its a 6 month and going project that uses a point based system, its a little mathematics heavy in its damage/experience systems but thats why the calculator was invented, this is actually its 4-5th incarnation, its first being a zombie game for 1-shots. i have yet to run a full campaign with it and have been updating it at least weekly to fine tune it. if it was a computer program it would be like version 4.12467233648494 beta.

it is inspired from BESM, the whole point of it was just something to do, and future aspirations to turn it into a tabletop game in the same vein as heroclix or heroscape

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B4_1qqDHNKj_OWVhYmMwOTctZjUzYy00MDdjLWFjNDY tZWVjN2UwNTRlN2Ri&hl=en_US

note this is not the most current version

Tyndmyr
2011-07-18, 08:13 PM
*Raises hand*

It's called White Rain. It's not actually online, but it's derived from a quite well fleshed-out metasystem I designed with a few friends(each of us having different setting goals for a system). Basically, modern, non-magical, classless with a heavy dose of pulp/heroic feel. Excellent for action-movie type things.

Some or all of it will likely end up either online and/or in published books at some point in time.

Strormer
2011-07-18, 08:21 PM
I started working on a clean-slate homebrew system for my setting because I use the same setting for my writing as I do for my gaming and I didn't want any copyright issues sneaking up in the future.
The system centered around point-buy mechanics in which classes are basically unique constructions, that is to say, there are not classes, only characters. I used a d12 as my base die mostly because the d12 gets no love and I want to love it, and reduced the die rolling to a minimum. The system takes a lot from the Storyteller system and from d20, but nothing proprietary.
I haven't finished it because fleshing out the world seemed so much more vital at the time, sense I was writing stories in it, than the mechanics. Still, I would love to take another crack at it and maybe put it out if possible. It's based on creativity and imagination more than control and playability so I imagine, if I was to categorize it, it would fall more into the white wolf lineup style than DND, but it could be mechanized with ease into d20 since most of the title is fluff. (Not unlike Kingdoms of Kalamar in that respect.)
I'm not sure if that really answered the question at hand, but I love creating and my favorite part of the game was always character creation so I guess that's where I stand.

Jjeinn-tae
2011-07-18, 08:22 PM
5 years or so now I've been working on the "Magitek" system (not to be confused with another one on these boards called Magitech) it's for computer games, but from an early point I've wanted to design it in a way that it would work PnP as well. Made to be versatile, it provides a core that you can use to make all sorts of genres, the computer games use a 10,000 sided die for most things, but playing physically I'd suggest d% or d20, I don't think a tabletop needs everything down to a 100th of a percent difference.

I plan on putting it up sometime here, maybe do a PbP test run of it too, but I don't mind talking about the generic system itself, if there's anything you'd want to know in particular.

Strormer
2011-07-18, 08:27 PM
I started working on a clean-slate homebrew system for my setting because I use the same setting for my writing as I do for my gaming and I didn't want any copyright issues sneaking up in the future.
The system centered around point-buy mechanics in which classes are basically unique constructions, that is to say, there are not classes, only characters. I used a d12 as my base die mostly because the d12 gets no love and I want to love it, and reduced the die rolling to a minimum. The system takes a lot from the Storyteller system and from d20, but nothing proprietary.
I haven't finished it because fleshing out the world seemed so much more vital at the time, sense I was writing stories in it, than the mechanics. Still, I would love to take another crack at it and maybe put it out if possible. It's based on creativity and imagination more than control and playability so I imagine, if I was to categorize it, it would fall more into the white wolf lineup style than DND, but it could be mechanized with ease into d20 since most of the title is fluff. (Not unlike Kingdoms of Kalamar in that respect.)
I'm not sure if that really answered the question at hand, but I love creating and my favorite part of the game was always character creation so I guess that's where I stand.

Makiru
2011-07-18, 09:19 PM
Dariun Cates's Pirates vs. Ninjas system (check the sig). We've been playtesting fairly extensively for about a year and a half now, and it's been really fun. Even though the abilities are in explicit factions, the fluff is completely mutable, which I consider a plus. In fact, it's become a bit of a running gag in our group to make characters based on Kamen Rider without using abilities from the faction that explicitly parodies it.

Dust
2011-07-18, 10:30 PM
The above is a fantastic game from every standpoint. One of the best non-D&D things to ever come from these boards.