Lyrion
2015-02-01, 02:59 PM
Hi everyone.
I'm new to these boards, so allow me to somewhat introduce myself:
I'm not new to the hobby, not by a long shot, though I'm not as old as some. I bloodied by blade on second edition D&D and increased my experience through every edition that came after, the most recent being Pathfinder, which I allow myself to consider an edition of D&D in some way.
Over the recent years, I have grown more and more annoyed with some aspects of the d20 system, mainly the heavy need for magical items of the "+" variety and the need to jump through several hoops - some of them burning - to make the character I would like to play.
Here I would like to clarify that though I am very good at power gaming, I do not design my characters from a powered standpoint, but from the idea that the character must be belivable. Granted, while belivable, my characters are very rarely weak.
But to the point! In a fit of madness, I decided to create my own RPG system, after all, how hard could it be? Well, when we get down to it, it is actually very hard, but at the same time it is extremely rewarding and I am hooked.
I've been designing on the system for some 14 months now and have been playing it once a week with my normal group for almost 8 of these months. Of course, corrections have been popping up, more in the beginning and less and less over time. It's been almost harrowing at times and at other times it has been one of the best experiences of my life.
The system is based around the core idea that it must be simple. I have often had the pleasure of introducing others to the hobby and many times have I seen new-commers go completely blank at the prospect of making and playing a character of their own. Many times have I sat with said new-commer for several hours, explaining feats, skills, spells, classes, BAB, saves, etc. And still had to go over how to roll what several months later. Some have even decided that it was too hard to play roleplaying games and never returned. So the core of the game is simplicity.
Success was achieved in august, when we got two completely green guys to the table. We rolled up characters in less than an hour and was playing smoothly within 3 session. This was a massive boost to my confidance and made me grow even more attached to the system, flawed as it was, and still is :)
The system itself is based around a d10 mechanic and ranks. A character has between 1 and 10 ranks in their stats and skills and must test below their rank to succeed - a bit like warhammer.
Increasing ranks cost experince, which is earned from session to session, independent of creatures killed, puzzles solved or any other achievements in that session. Instead, characters recieve one to three experience for each session, depending on how well they handled themselves, as well as bonus experience for completing story lines and important side quests.
So if we only have stats and skills to increase; doesn't it get kinda boring?
Yes, yes it does. So while the system is very simple, it has loads of character options. The baseline character is specialized, either as a mage, savant, or warrior.
- The mage casts magic, no suprise there ;) But his magic is much different from the normal fantasy thropes of elemental masteries, it is based entirely around raw magical energy, shaped to blasts, melee weapons, or even armour or the form of a dragon.
- The savant is a versatile fellow, gaining abilities that allows him to gain bonuses to his tests, tricks that allow him to surprise with poisoned weapons, or some other small surprise and abilties called attitudes that bestow permanent benefits, for as long as that attitude is active.
- The warrior gains access to stances, abilities that allow him to deal more damage, or to soak more damage if he needs to. He can also learn styles, combat forms that grant him special benefits when wielding special weapon types, or wears specific armour. At last, he gains strikes, combat abilities that have a specific benefit, much like a spell, but always centered around combat.
Besides the specializations there are talents, alchemy, strange equipment, races of all sorts and shapes, monsters, beasts and constructs and of course magical items with strange and wondrous abilities.
With me so far? I hope so, because I would really like to talk about this with someone else than my girlfriend - who has been a brilliant co-pilot on this project, and my friends, who play it and loves it to pieces, so they are hardly objective witnesses :)
Well. If I get some feedback I will gladly expand on my system and ideas, as I said, I could really use sharing it with someone outside my normal circle :)
- Lyrion Danathol, unfortunate testing character
I'm new to these boards, so allow me to somewhat introduce myself:
I'm not new to the hobby, not by a long shot, though I'm not as old as some. I bloodied by blade on second edition D&D and increased my experience through every edition that came after, the most recent being Pathfinder, which I allow myself to consider an edition of D&D in some way.
Over the recent years, I have grown more and more annoyed with some aspects of the d20 system, mainly the heavy need for magical items of the "+" variety and the need to jump through several hoops - some of them burning - to make the character I would like to play.
Here I would like to clarify that though I am very good at power gaming, I do not design my characters from a powered standpoint, but from the idea that the character must be belivable. Granted, while belivable, my characters are very rarely weak.
But to the point! In a fit of madness, I decided to create my own RPG system, after all, how hard could it be? Well, when we get down to it, it is actually very hard, but at the same time it is extremely rewarding and I am hooked.
I've been designing on the system for some 14 months now and have been playing it once a week with my normal group for almost 8 of these months. Of course, corrections have been popping up, more in the beginning and less and less over time. It's been almost harrowing at times and at other times it has been one of the best experiences of my life.
The system is based around the core idea that it must be simple. I have often had the pleasure of introducing others to the hobby and many times have I seen new-commers go completely blank at the prospect of making and playing a character of their own. Many times have I sat with said new-commer for several hours, explaining feats, skills, spells, classes, BAB, saves, etc. And still had to go over how to roll what several months later. Some have even decided that it was too hard to play roleplaying games and never returned. So the core of the game is simplicity.
Success was achieved in august, when we got two completely green guys to the table. We rolled up characters in less than an hour and was playing smoothly within 3 session. This was a massive boost to my confidance and made me grow even more attached to the system, flawed as it was, and still is :)
The system itself is based around a d10 mechanic and ranks. A character has between 1 and 10 ranks in their stats and skills and must test below their rank to succeed - a bit like warhammer.
Increasing ranks cost experince, which is earned from session to session, independent of creatures killed, puzzles solved or any other achievements in that session. Instead, characters recieve one to three experience for each session, depending on how well they handled themselves, as well as bonus experience for completing story lines and important side quests.
So if we only have stats and skills to increase; doesn't it get kinda boring?
Yes, yes it does. So while the system is very simple, it has loads of character options. The baseline character is specialized, either as a mage, savant, or warrior.
- The mage casts magic, no suprise there ;) But his magic is much different from the normal fantasy thropes of elemental masteries, it is based entirely around raw magical energy, shaped to blasts, melee weapons, or even armour or the form of a dragon.
- The savant is a versatile fellow, gaining abilities that allows him to gain bonuses to his tests, tricks that allow him to surprise with poisoned weapons, or some other small surprise and abilties called attitudes that bestow permanent benefits, for as long as that attitude is active.
- The warrior gains access to stances, abilities that allow him to deal more damage, or to soak more damage if he needs to. He can also learn styles, combat forms that grant him special benefits when wielding special weapon types, or wears specific armour. At last, he gains strikes, combat abilities that have a specific benefit, much like a spell, but always centered around combat.
Besides the specializations there are talents, alchemy, strange equipment, races of all sorts and shapes, monsters, beasts and constructs and of course magical items with strange and wondrous abilities.
With me so far? I hope so, because I would really like to talk about this with someone else than my girlfriend - who has been a brilliant co-pilot on this project, and my friends, who play it and loves it to pieces, so they are hardly objective witnesses :)
Well. If I get some feedback I will gladly expand on my system and ideas, as I said, I could really use sharing it with someone outside my normal circle :)
- Lyrion Danathol, unfortunate testing character