Yitzi
2012-10-11, 08:43 PM
Ok, I've finally got enough of my system remake to post the table of contents. (I still don't have a good name for it though, unfortunately.)
First, an unofficial introduction:
Why am I making a system remake? Well, in short because 3.5 is great, and it's horrible. It's great in that:
-It allows for heavy customization of characters.
-It is quite versatile. It can handle a combat-based game, or a more interaction-based game, or a wilderness survival game, or a dungeon-exploring game, or any combination of those. Not as well as a game specialized in those areas, but pretty well.
-It gives the DM enough leeway to make an interesting game, while still providing enough rule structure that he doesn't have to make too many judgement calls.
It's horrible in that:
-The balance is completely broken if the players are trying to make an effective character without restraint.
-The balance is severely broken if the players are simply not trying to avoid unbalanced characters.
-The balance is pretty broken even if the players are trying to avoid unbalancing the game but don't really know what they're doing in that regard.
-The combat system favors purely offensive builds, leading to a "rocket tag" effect.
-Magic items...I'll let Grod The Giant comment on this issue. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=223535) (I won't go as extreme as his fix does in removing them, though.)
-Some classes, most notably the fighter, are bland.
-Some classes have features that make no thematic sense.
-The alignments are unclear, and the Law/Chaos one in particular isn't really a major ideological split (more a difference of approach).
-The experience system, and often the mechanics themselves, favor a "charge in and kill everything" approach, unless the DM takes steps to prevent that.
-High-level characters are powerful enough that it's often difficult to explain why they can't just do whatever they want with the world.
Pathfinder fixed some of the issues, but left many unaffected.
So rather than try to fix each issue individually, and then patch the problems those fixes cause, and keep patching until there are (hopefully) no new problems, I'm simply remaking the whole system (or at least very large pieces of it.)
Hopefully this system will solve these problems, and be not only playable, but a richer play experience than any of the other systems out there.
Finally, a few notes regarding the table of contents: The table of contents is divided into three sections: The Player's Manual, the Game Master's Advisory, and the Bestiary. In addition, because there is a substantial overlap with 3.5, I will be using formatting to indicate places that make use of material from there:
-A topic in italics is one in which this system has the same rules as 3.5, so I won't even write it up. If there's material in the online SRD it's linked.
-A topic in bold (but not underlined as well) is one for which there is (possibly in addition to material posted or linked) important information (often of a roleplaying or game-running nature) that is found in the books but not in the SRD. I am not posting them (because that would be a copyright violation), and they can't be found online, but I do highly suggest using that material if you have the books. So essentially a bold topic is one where I'm warning you that there's stuff other than what's available online.
First, an unofficial introduction:
Why am I making a system remake? Well, in short because 3.5 is great, and it's horrible. It's great in that:
-It allows for heavy customization of characters.
-It is quite versatile. It can handle a combat-based game, or a more interaction-based game, or a wilderness survival game, or a dungeon-exploring game, or any combination of those. Not as well as a game specialized in those areas, but pretty well.
-It gives the DM enough leeway to make an interesting game, while still providing enough rule structure that he doesn't have to make too many judgement calls.
It's horrible in that:
-The balance is completely broken if the players are trying to make an effective character without restraint.
-The balance is severely broken if the players are simply not trying to avoid unbalanced characters.
-The balance is pretty broken even if the players are trying to avoid unbalancing the game but don't really know what they're doing in that regard.
-The combat system favors purely offensive builds, leading to a "rocket tag" effect.
-Magic items...I'll let Grod The Giant comment on this issue. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=223535) (I won't go as extreme as his fix does in removing them, though.)
-Some classes, most notably the fighter, are bland.
-Some classes have features that make no thematic sense.
-The alignments are unclear, and the Law/Chaos one in particular isn't really a major ideological split (more a difference of approach).
-The experience system, and often the mechanics themselves, favor a "charge in and kill everything" approach, unless the DM takes steps to prevent that.
-High-level characters are powerful enough that it's often difficult to explain why they can't just do whatever they want with the world.
Pathfinder fixed some of the issues, but left many unaffected.
So rather than try to fix each issue individually, and then patch the problems those fixes cause, and keep patching until there are (hopefully) no new problems, I'm simply remaking the whole system (or at least very large pieces of it.)
Hopefully this system will solve these problems, and be not only playable, but a richer play experience than any of the other systems out there.
Finally, a few notes regarding the table of contents: The table of contents is divided into three sections: The Player's Manual, the Game Master's Advisory, and the Bestiary. In addition, because there is a substantial overlap with 3.5, I will be using formatting to indicate places that make use of material from there:
-A topic in italics is one in which this system has the same rules as 3.5, so I won't even write it up. If there's material in the online SRD it's linked.
-A topic in bold (but not underlined as well) is one for which there is (possibly in addition to material posted or linked) important information (often of a roleplaying or game-running nature) that is found in the books but not in the SRD. I am not posting them (because that would be a copyright violation), and they can't be found online, but I do highly suggest using that material if you have the books. So essentially a bold topic is one where I'm warning you that there's stuff other than what's available online.