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JNAProductions
2015-06-16, 10:21 PM
So I've had this idea knocking around my head a while, and I decided to finally try and get typed out.

The general idea is that you play as a Golem or Homunculi-something made by a mage to help them out, or for a specific task. But, somehow, you gained sentience. Now, you play in a world where you're nothing but a tool.

The system is to be based around the titular runes. Runes come in many varieties.

Life
Death
Stasis

Offense
Defense
Utility

Water
Earth
Air
Fire
Aether

Bolt
Ray
Nova
Self
Touch

Players will combine and select runes in order to build their Golem and their abilities.

Stats
Life-the driving force that powers you. Stronger in the more magical golems.
Body-General strength and durability. Stronger in larger, tougher golems.
Agility-How swift and dexterous you are. Stronger in lighter, speedier golems.
Intelligence-The smarts of your golem. Stronger in golems with a lot of data.
Will-How much force of mind your golem has. Stronger in golems with clear goals.

Wounds-How many hits you can take.

So... Help designing the general system?

JNAProductions
2015-06-16, 10:23 PM
Reserved for future expansion. Hopefully it'll be needed.

Bruno Carvalho
2015-06-17, 06:55 AM
What is your main goal with the system? What do you aim for?

A tactical, detail-oriented, boardgame-like crunchier game?

A freeform crunch-light exploration of what means to be a tool for another one?

What are your design principles and goals? These matter much more, at least in this first phase, than a list of stats or runetypes.

JNAProductions
2015-06-17, 09:09 AM
What is your main goal with the system? What do you aim for?

A tactical, detail-oriented, boardgame-like crunchier game?

A freeform crunch-light exploration of what means to be a tool for another one?

What are your design principles and goals? These matter much more, at least in this first phase, than a list of stats or runetypes.

A more tactical, crunchy kind of game. One with plenty of options, both in chracter generation and in play.

Bruno Carvalho
2015-06-17, 09:36 AM
Ah, a tactical game. Those are great.

To design such a game, it's good to first think about the arena itself before presenting the gladiators. In other words, which ways will be your players competing in? Life-or-death combat is a obvious choice, but need not to be the only one. There are other battles to be fought - exploration contests (man - or golem - versus dungeon and man - or golem - vs the world, so common in D&D); social contests (between golems? golems vs masters?, akin to Green Ronin's Three Stat social mechanics); and many other kinds of special contests (like nethacking in a Shadowrun our Cyberpunk 2020 game) you can devise for your game (a battle of wits between golems and their would-be masters, maybe?).

So, by deciding how the game can be played, we can design how the players can do it. Games with lots of options need to have these categories well defined and then each option will give different tools to tackle them.

JNAProductions
2015-06-17, 09:42 AM
Let's see...

Combat
Stealth
Exploration
Survival

And maybe social? I'm not sure that's something that'll be defined in the system.

Maybe also Genesis-the creation of a golem society. Eking out a place to survive, building the scoiety, surviving against a world that doesn't accept... But that's probably something that can wait until the simpler steps are built.

Bruno Carvalho
2015-06-17, 11:58 AM
Great, let's delve deeper into these concepts.

Stealth and Exploration are parts of the same aspect of a game. Stealth is one way to win exploration contests, along with diplomacy, for example.

Survival is a good idea to be integrated into other systems. Survival, in game terms, is the epitome of resource management - managing your resources to get the most bang for your buck. Health points, as well as magic slots, and other resource-related mechanics help your game to have this survival feel.

So, if I'm still in the right idea, you got a crunchy combat/exploration game with a resource management focus. Which, by the way, is a good description of D&D, so you're aiming for a similar experience. Having this solidified is important to guide the next steps of the game design process.

Now onto systems. First, i'd recommend you against alienating part of your playerbase from any of the main focal points of your game. That way, even if you want to make a combat expert, you should give that characters at least the basic tools to function on the exploration moments (and vice versa).

Second, I believe you're going for a fortune-based game (opposed to karma or drama-based gaming), so I'd advice you to do the first design decision based on those principles outlined above. Why not work with a pool (or pools) of usable dice? Let's say the golems work on finite energy, and can only use or empower their skills (by adding more dice) by using that limited pool. It could recover based on time (X dice per day) and/or based on Drama (as you meet your enemy, your dice pool gains X dice!). Lets say, for example, your basic roll is as simple as rolling 3d6 + bonuses against a fixed CD - but some golems could add more d6 to the rolls by using its skills and traits (either by using the best dice, as per D&D 5e advantage system, or by adding it all together). However, those dice added are spent once used until they recover. This would add a good deal of strategical thinking to the game without needing too much bookkeeping.

Lastly, and this is my personal opinion, I prefer rolling more dice than rolling bigger dice (as in 3d6 being better than 1d20), as the multi-dice rolling grants more information per roll (for example, the Dragon Dice mechanics from Dragon Age PnP RPG). However, its just a personal opinion, so feel free to ignore this last paragraph :D