Mechanize
2013-03-15, 05:00 PM
I've been writing my own system for a few months now. I am currently thinking of special abilities and boy does this take a long time. If anyone has any unique ideas feel free to let the creative juices flow lol. Here is some background on what I am doing.
Power Source: Every hero will have a power source that fuels special abilities. Each power source will have different mechanics to help give a unique feel. Each hero can dabble in new sources of power when they level up.
Adrenaline: Barbarian type
Tactics: Fighter type
Magic: Caster type
Precision: Rogue/Assassin type
Chi Energy/Ki/Inner Power: Monk type
I am creating a classless system. You are free, upon every new level, to increase your power in a power source you already have, or be diverse and dabble in multiple sources of power. One of my goals is for someone to be able to create any type of PC that they can imagine up... so my first question is this.
- Can anyone think up any other sources of power that a hero would rely on in battle? Something not covered with the above listed?
- Another goal is that each power source is very focused and flavorful, especially magic. For magic, I have Realms that separates magic into very distinct styles and flavors. For tactics I have different disciplines that focus on specific abilities (similar to tomb of battle). Here is a list of magic realms and disciplines. The list is hardly finished or fine tuned. These are just ideas. If anyone has some ideas for realms or disciplines let me know
- And for the abilities themselves. I wouldn't mind a hand because there are hundreds for me to think of. My only goal here is to keep abilities very focused within their power source, realm or discipline. Meaning I don't want mages picking locks or adrenaline users to have finesse.
- One more thing, I am also setting this up to have a lot of options both on or off turn. Off turn reactions consist of blocking dodging or using swift/interrupt abilities.
Realms:
Basic name - Latin name for a fun place holder - idea of the realm
Spirit - Anima - Spiritual magic, heals stamina (I'm using a 2 part HP system with stamina and vitality points), boosts moral, can summon spirits from the afterlife
Necrotic - Morbus - Disease, plague, decay
Telepathy - Dominari - Mind reading, charming, counterspelling, mental domination
Elementalist - Elementum - Molecular telekinesis. They are Elementalists though because some force prohibits them from manipulating living objects. Anything you can think of to do with molecules out of a living entity is fair game.
Cosmic - Omni - Cosmic energies such as gravity, magnetism and time. Able to see into the future or past.
Creation - Genesis - Focuses on life and growth. Can create creatures, enhance living bodies making them stronger/faster or basically anything dealing with nature. Able to cure injuries via enhanced natural regeneration.
Light - Lux, Lumina - Control light, or the abscense of it. Bend light for invisibility, create light/energy or remove it to create cloaks of shadow.
Disciplines:
These are for fighting types. I'm open to new names for the disciplines, abilities for the disciplines or new disciplines in general.
Iron Mountain: A strong defensive dicipline that excells at blocking and defending not only his or herself but close by allies. This Discipline is taught to many soldiers that are part of a phalanx or heavy infantry or to soldiers defending choke points.
Unrelenting Ice: Like an avalanche this Discipline excells at breaking up enemy formation. It was favored by many soldiers who took the point position. Will focus on moving people or knocking them around.
Whispering Wind: A discipline favoring high mobility with hit and run tactics.
Twin Leopards: A discipline focusing on medium or light dual weapon fighting.
Kiss of the Hummingbird: A fast dicipline focused on dueling. Bonuses vs a marked opponent, but penalties vs all others.
Tranquil Shallows: Like a still body of water that gives a clear reflection, you are calm and focused on your opponents actions. A dicipline focused on countering.
Serpent's Embrace: A discipline focused on Grappling.
Power Source is, like mentioned, probably a bad name to use, but its a place holder for now. ^_^
Talents: (special abilities)
Talents are a hero's special abilities. They are separated by Tiers/levels and below that Disciplines and Realms. If you level your hero up, you get to choose from a Power Source to focus in. When you choose a Power Source you get to pick 2 Talents in that Source. My goals here are to allow players to focus and become powerful in one area, or weaker but more diverse by splitting powers all over the place.
Example 1: At level 1, I choose to focus in the Magic Source, and in that source I have to choose a realm of magic. I'll choose the Elemental Realm. This gives me access to Tier 1 Elemental Talents.
To gain Tier 2 Talents, I need to focus in a Discipline or Realm or Power Source (for sources that don't use separate disciplines like Adrenaline) for 2 levels.
At level 2, I decide to focus further in the Elemental Realm
At level 3, now that I have 2 levels focused in the Elemental Realm, I now have access to Tier 2 Elemental Magic.
Example 2:
At level one I choose Tactics and the Serpents Embrace Discipline, unlocking Tier 1 Talents from that Discipline.
At level two I choose Magic and the Elemental Realm, unlocking Tier 1 Talents from that Realm
At level three I do not get to unlock any Tier 2 talents yet because I have yet to focus twice.
Power Source Mechanics: This is where it gets interesting and difficult at the same time. I want each Power Source to have different mechanics so that there is a distinct feel between them. The difficult part is that if you guy suggest a ton of different Power Sources, its very hard to have a whole bunch of different mechanics. Just something to keep in mind.
Adrenaline: To build adrenaline you must deal damage or receive damage. When you build up enough Adrenaline you are able to spend the Adrenaline on Talents. This is very similar to Diablo 3, or Guildwars Adrenaline meter.
Intent: Get stronger as battle progresses. Adrenaline Talents will be more brutal, but harder to use freely.
Tactics: When you unlock a Discipline you gain a stance for that Discipline which gives specific bonuses. You also get to pick Talents pertaining to that Discipline. The Talents have no cost, the only requirement is that you are in the proper stance. As you level up you will be allowed to choose new Disciplines and switch between stances.
Intent: I want fighter types to feel smarter and more tactical in a way... having to choose between stances for different situations. I want to avoid once per encounter/once per day abilities because fighters should be able to do the same technique 20 times if they want. Tactics will remain mundane, if they want super natural abilities like flaming swords and flying, they would have to dip into magic.
Magic: A regenerating mana pool system. Tier 1 spells cost 1, Tier 2 cost 2 etc. You regenerate 1 point per round. Meaning Tier 9 spells will be powerful but you could only cast 1, then be stuck casting level 1 spells round after round. Or, you can sacrifice stamina to cast spells you can not afford. This act won't kill you, but it can knock you out and leave you exhausted for the rest of the day.
Intent: Casters can always cast with the regen every turn, but they can't cast huge spells turn after turn, unless they want to knock themselves out.
Precision: I may combine this with tactics... not sure yet. So far I am using a dice pool system that has been done before with other systems. Each Tier of Precision unlocked gives you another die to use for precision/sneak attack damage, or you can spend the dice on special abilities that will cost a certain amount.
Chi Energy: Not exactly sure what to do here yet. I want a mechanic that relies on focus/meditation. I know I'd like this to be a little more epic than D&D monks. Think Dragon Ball Z powering up, kamehameha, crazy stuff lol.
Again I am open to all sorts of suggestions. If the magic seems to basic and "already done" then by all means, let me hear your idea. All feedback is welcomed as it gives me more ideas for my project.
Thanks to everyone ahead of time!
Power Source: Every hero will have a power source that fuels special abilities. Each power source will have different mechanics to help give a unique feel. Each hero can dabble in new sources of power when they level up.
Adrenaline: Barbarian type
Tactics: Fighter type
Magic: Caster type
Precision: Rogue/Assassin type
Chi Energy/Ki/Inner Power: Monk type
I am creating a classless system. You are free, upon every new level, to increase your power in a power source you already have, or be diverse and dabble in multiple sources of power. One of my goals is for someone to be able to create any type of PC that they can imagine up... so my first question is this.
- Can anyone think up any other sources of power that a hero would rely on in battle? Something not covered with the above listed?
- Another goal is that each power source is very focused and flavorful, especially magic. For magic, I have Realms that separates magic into very distinct styles and flavors. For tactics I have different disciplines that focus on specific abilities (similar to tomb of battle). Here is a list of magic realms and disciplines. The list is hardly finished or fine tuned. These are just ideas. If anyone has some ideas for realms or disciplines let me know
- And for the abilities themselves. I wouldn't mind a hand because there are hundreds for me to think of. My only goal here is to keep abilities very focused within their power source, realm or discipline. Meaning I don't want mages picking locks or adrenaline users to have finesse.
- One more thing, I am also setting this up to have a lot of options both on or off turn. Off turn reactions consist of blocking dodging or using swift/interrupt abilities.
Realms:
Basic name - Latin name for a fun place holder - idea of the realm
Spirit - Anima - Spiritual magic, heals stamina (I'm using a 2 part HP system with stamina and vitality points), boosts moral, can summon spirits from the afterlife
Necrotic - Morbus - Disease, plague, decay
Telepathy - Dominari - Mind reading, charming, counterspelling, mental domination
Elementalist - Elementum - Molecular telekinesis. They are Elementalists though because some force prohibits them from manipulating living objects. Anything you can think of to do with molecules out of a living entity is fair game.
Cosmic - Omni - Cosmic energies such as gravity, magnetism and time. Able to see into the future or past.
Creation - Genesis - Focuses on life and growth. Can create creatures, enhance living bodies making them stronger/faster or basically anything dealing with nature. Able to cure injuries via enhanced natural regeneration.
Light - Lux, Lumina - Control light, or the abscense of it. Bend light for invisibility, create light/energy or remove it to create cloaks of shadow.
Disciplines:
These are for fighting types. I'm open to new names for the disciplines, abilities for the disciplines or new disciplines in general.
Iron Mountain: A strong defensive dicipline that excells at blocking and defending not only his or herself but close by allies. This Discipline is taught to many soldiers that are part of a phalanx or heavy infantry or to soldiers defending choke points.
Unrelenting Ice: Like an avalanche this Discipline excells at breaking up enemy formation. It was favored by many soldiers who took the point position. Will focus on moving people or knocking them around.
Whispering Wind: A discipline favoring high mobility with hit and run tactics.
Twin Leopards: A discipline focusing on medium or light dual weapon fighting.
Kiss of the Hummingbird: A fast dicipline focused on dueling. Bonuses vs a marked opponent, but penalties vs all others.
Tranquil Shallows: Like a still body of water that gives a clear reflection, you are calm and focused on your opponents actions. A dicipline focused on countering.
Serpent's Embrace: A discipline focused on Grappling.
Power Source is, like mentioned, probably a bad name to use, but its a place holder for now. ^_^
Talents: (special abilities)
Talents are a hero's special abilities. They are separated by Tiers/levels and below that Disciplines and Realms. If you level your hero up, you get to choose from a Power Source to focus in. When you choose a Power Source you get to pick 2 Talents in that Source. My goals here are to allow players to focus and become powerful in one area, or weaker but more diverse by splitting powers all over the place.
Example 1: At level 1, I choose to focus in the Magic Source, and in that source I have to choose a realm of magic. I'll choose the Elemental Realm. This gives me access to Tier 1 Elemental Talents.
To gain Tier 2 Talents, I need to focus in a Discipline or Realm or Power Source (for sources that don't use separate disciplines like Adrenaline) for 2 levels.
At level 2, I decide to focus further in the Elemental Realm
At level 3, now that I have 2 levels focused in the Elemental Realm, I now have access to Tier 2 Elemental Magic.
Example 2:
At level one I choose Tactics and the Serpents Embrace Discipline, unlocking Tier 1 Talents from that Discipline.
At level two I choose Magic and the Elemental Realm, unlocking Tier 1 Talents from that Realm
At level three I do not get to unlock any Tier 2 talents yet because I have yet to focus twice.
Power Source Mechanics: This is where it gets interesting and difficult at the same time. I want each Power Source to have different mechanics so that there is a distinct feel between them. The difficult part is that if you guy suggest a ton of different Power Sources, its very hard to have a whole bunch of different mechanics. Just something to keep in mind.
Adrenaline: To build adrenaline you must deal damage or receive damage. When you build up enough Adrenaline you are able to spend the Adrenaline on Talents. This is very similar to Diablo 3, or Guildwars Adrenaline meter.
Intent: Get stronger as battle progresses. Adrenaline Talents will be more brutal, but harder to use freely.
Tactics: When you unlock a Discipline you gain a stance for that Discipline which gives specific bonuses. You also get to pick Talents pertaining to that Discipline. The Talents have no cost, the only requirement is that you are in the proper stance. As you level up you will be allowed to choose new Disciplines and switch between stances.
Intent: I want fighter types to feel smarter and more tactical in a way... having to choose between stances for different situations. I want to avoid once per encounter/once per day abilities because fighters should be able to do the same technique 20 times if they want. Tactics will remain mundane, if they want super natural abilities like flaming swords and flying, they would have to dip into magic.
Magic: A regenerating mana pool system. Tier 1 spells cost 1, Tier 2 cost 2 etc. You regenerate 1 point per round. Meaning Tier 9 spells will be powerful but you could only cast 1, then be stuck casting level 1 spells round after round. Or, you can sacrifice stamina to cast spells you can not afford. This act won't kill you, but it can knock you out and leave you exhausted for the rest of the day.
Intent: Casters can always cast with the regen every turn, but they can't cast huge spells turn after turn, unless they want to knock themselves out.
Precision: I may combine this with tactics... not sure yet. So far I am using a dice pool system that has been done before with other systems. Each Tier of Precision unlocked gives you another die to use for precision/sneak attack damage, or you can spend the dice on special abilities that will cost a certain amount.
Chi Energy: Not exactly sure what to do here yet. I want a mechanic that relies on focus/meditation. I know I'd like this to be a little more epic than D&D monks. Think Dragon Ball Z powering up, kamehameha, crazy stuff lol.
Again I am open to all sorts of suggestions. If the magic seems to basic and "already done" then by all means, let me hear your idea. All feedback is welcomed as it gives me more ideas for my project.
Thanks to everyone ahead of time!