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View Full Version : Original System My Classless System: A work in progress (critiques wanted!)



caesar193
2015-04-22, 02:46 PM
So I've decided to try my hand at homebrewin'. More specifically, system creation. As I've been crafting a fantasy world, I'd like to make a system for it as well. Especially since some of my ideas for it don't fit the established systems that I all ready know, and though I could just make different things to fit those systems, I'd rather just make the whole system from scratch. Plus, it'll be more fun this way. And maybe I can DM a PbP game here playtesting this system, but that's a project for a later date. I first need the system.

General goals for the system: I want it to be simple and easy to learn, because I feel that the rules should be there to provide a framework for the fun. The game shouldn't grind to a halt because the fighter power attacked a goblin and feels he should be able to drop the attack bonus reduction in subsequent attacks of opportunities against the orc trying to flank him and the DM has to peruse a couple of rule books to see if that's possible. Sure, a good DM would just wing it and make a judgement call and look up the rule later, but it'd be easier to know what the fighter can do right from the beginning, wouldn't it? Another goal is ease to customize. I want each person who has some awesome idea for their character to be able to easily fulfill that idea. If they want their armor-enshrouded tanky fighter to also be able to toss out fireballs, I want to see that happen, without waiting for them to reach second level and be able to multi-class to be able to do it. So right from the beginning I'm going to say it: no classes. The TL;DR for goals would be I want to make it simple and easy for character customization.

I shall use this first post as a general introduction to the system (you know, the thing you're currently reading), throw on a table of contents, and make a couple of posts after this to use as placeholders. After that, feel free to post critiques, questions, ideas, suggestions, comments, etc.

Anyway, onto the system!

Table of Contents:

1. Attributes and Races
2. Skills and Magic
3. Feats
4. Combat
5. Example Character Creation and Example Senario

caesar193
2015-04-22, 02:47 PM
Attributes and Race

Attributes:

I shall start with your attributes (strength, dexterity, etc.) because that seems to be the obvious place to start. And since I plan to have your race affect your attributes, I'll handle them in the same post. But now for attributes.

There shall be six of them. However, each will be paired with one other (so three pairs), so that each attribute will oppose another. Here is a table of each attribute opposite the one the oppose:



Strength
Intelligence


Dexterity
Constitution


Intuition
Reason



When determining your character's attributes, you start with 0 in each. You can either increase or decrease it until you reach your desired amount, with a limit of either positive or negative five. However, the opposing attribute (or the other attribute in its pair) the receives the opposite. For example, if you wanted your character to have a +2 in Strength, he'd have a -2 in Intelligence, and so on.

Whatever your attribute is can then be further modified by your race and other factors, which I shall get into later.

Whatever number your attributes become is also, conveniently enough, its modifier, which is applied to your skills and other things like that. More on how it applies to skills shall be discussed in the Skills section.

Each attribute (and the general things it applies to) are as follows:

Strength: This one is easy enough to understand. Strength is brute strength, and handles how hard you can hit someone, how much you can carry, whether that door is going to stand between you and the dragon's kidnapped victim, etc. Because (generally speaking) the harder you hit someone the more damage you do them, it affects how much damage you do in combat. Strength opposes Intelligence because the time you spent lifting weights at the gym (or, if you want a more fantasy example, lifting logs and carrying it back home) was not spent with your nose in some duty tome of forgotten lore. But who wants to be a bookworm anyway?
Intelligence: Intelligence governs knowledge more than anything else. If you're looking for "figuring things out" ability, take a look at Intuition and Reason. But stick around her for a little bit more anyway, eh? It generally affects magic, and how much mana you get (more on mana later), as well as research, memorization, general knowledge. Intelligence is just as useful for the dusty scholar who fears to leave his library as it is for the lowly thief who needs to know the lay of the land and which parts of the city aren't his turf. Intelligence opposes Strength because the time you spent actually using your brain was not spent getting buff. But who wants to be a muscele-bound jock anyway?
Dexterity: This one, too, is simple. Its agility, speed, reflexes, etc. You want to stroll across that inch-wide ledge over a thousand foot drop? Better have a good Dexterity or else your going to have more in common with the insides of a pie than you'd like. Dexterity also is helpful in combat, as good Dexterity keeps that goblin from turning you into PC-on-a-stick. Dexterity opposes Constitution because people's huge musceles from their constitution are less likely to be able to dodge that incoming javelin (and for the meta reason that high dexterity means you can dodge hits, but you can take less). And who wants to take damage anyway?
Constitution: This one handles how healthy you are. Plague rat decides to give you an affectionate nip? Time to test that immune system, or, in other words, hope your Constitution's high. It also handles your hit points, or how much damage you can take before you take a one way trip to the Afterlife. Each player starts at 20 hit points, and adds double your Constitution. So a Constitution of +3 gives you 26 hit points, whereas a Constitution of -2 gives you 16. Constitution opposes Dexterity because your muscles and your size get in the way of your speed (and for the meta reason that high Constitution means you can take more hits, but you can't dodge as many). And who wants to be a weakling who can't take a punch anyway?
Intuition: A high Intuition means you can think faster. You can intuitively understand a situation, and you let your instincts tell you what to do, and whether the enemy will leave an opening here or there. Because of that, a high Intuition increases your ability to hit an opponent with either a melee or ranged weapon. It opposes Reason because you're more in the moment, a short-term thinker. And who needs to worry about things happening next week or in the next country, anyway?
Reason: Reason governs things that take planning. A high Reason helps you, well, reason. That King who seems to always be two steps ahead of you and always, always moves his bishop in just the wrong way and gets a checkmate just when you thought you had him has a high Reason. A character with a high Reason, given time to think, can weasel their way out of most situation. It opposes Intuition because you need that time to think, time to plan, to react properly. And who wants to be a thoughtless, impatient fool, anyway?

Races:

Choosing a race will provide you with changes to your atteibutes, as well as additional abilities above the level of human. The changes to attributes do not affect the attribute's opposing attribute. For example, an Elf's increased dexterity does not lower constitution. If the elf has +2 dexterity and -2 constitution to start, the elf's dexterity increase would only make it +3 dexterity and still a -2 constitution.

Each race also has one racial trait, and three cultural traits. The racial trait is required, and all members of that race have it (I mean, unless its the ability to see in the dark and you chopped out your eyes, or something like that). The cultural traits, however, are optional. Though each character must have one cultural trait, and only one. The cultural traits reflect the races in my own world, so they might differ from the standard races or your own. Feel free to make up whatever traits you want if you were to use my system for your own world. And now for the races themselves.

Dwarves: The dwarves have always been a traditional race. They have always thought of the older days as the golden days, the past is great and the future is terrible. In fact, there word for older is the same as there word for superior. Even in the dark days of the Empire, where dwarves were hated by the powers that be and were forced into the caverns below the plains, they still stoically followed their tradition and rituals, even daring to come up when it came time to worship their Sky God. Still, they are also a practical people, and the underground is simply harder to get enough food to feed a people with. So they turned to magic, newly found and newly invented by them, to feed their children. Perhaps it was new, and thus inferior to the older ways, but it produced the results they need.
Attribute Changes: +1 Strength, -1 Dexterity, -1 Reason
Racial Trait: Solidity- when remaining stationary, enemies take -1 to hit the dwarf, dwarf takes -1 damage, and magic gets a 5% bonus chance of successful cast.
Cultural Traits: Magical Heritage- has magical tricks, can create small flame like a candle (cost: 1 mana per minute). Attuned Hearing- Perception and Search skills gain 10% bonus if nearby allies and the dwarf remain silent during skill use. Conservation- Spells and abilities that use mana use one less mana per cast.
Elves: The elves left the Plains for the shade of the eastern forests. There, they found plenty of trees for there favored pursuit: poetry, which requires a lot of the paper from the trees. As immortal creatures, unless killed by weapon, disease, etc., the elves shun the everyday endeavors to make mighty epics that might take them from a decade to a century to finish. The other arts are also admired, with breath-taking accomplishments in architecture, painting, statuary, and more. Part of this is due to the breadth of time they have to live, another part is due to there green, photosynthetic skin that lessens there need for food.
Attribute Changes: +Intelligence, -1 Strength, -1 Intuition
Racial Trait: Photosynthesis- Elves, due to their photosynthetic skin, need eat only once every other day, once a week if not doing much physical exercise, and need deal with waste (aka, poop) in twice that.
Cultural Traits: Artistic Experience- An Elf gains a 20% knowledge skill bonus to identify a particular art piece, and a 15% knowledge skill bonus to know history associated with it. Natural Attunity- 10% bonus to stealth skill when in a forest, plain, or other terrain with high amounts of flora. Obsession- An elf can choose one subject area, craft, or profession, to which s/he has devoted his/her life, and gains a 30% bonus to whatever skill is in use when dealing with that topic.
Gnomes: TBA
Attribute Changes:
Racial Trait:
Cultural Traits:
Halflings: TBA
Attribute Changes:
Racial Trait:
Cultural Traits:
Humans:TBA
Attribute Changes:
Racial Trait:
Cultural Traits:

caesar193
2015-04-22, 02:48 PM
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caesar193
2015-04-22, 02:49 PM
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caesar193
2015-04-22, 02:50 PM
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caesar193
2015-04-22, 02:51 PM
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