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Probably Pixel
2016-03-01, 01:03 AM
Quester’s Story
Once upon a time I wanted to play an RPG. Not a video game RPG, but a classic, pen and paper, dungeons and dragons-like RPG. So I created a character sheet format, helped some friends understand my arbitrary rules, and we sat down and had a fun time.
Soon afterwards, we decided to take it a step further, and play the real Dungeons & Dragons. We were all excited for the adventure, but we overlooked one thing; playing D&D when no-one involved has played before is insanely difficult.
We returned to my RPG a week later, and with a few ideas from our short experience with D&D, we turned it into something greater than anything we had used before.
So now I present to you… An RPG four hours a week over half a year in the making. Simplified rules. Expanded rules. Action. Adventure. Democracy. Magic. Babes.
I have given you the pen and the paper. The Dungeons as well as the Dragons. You have the tools. All you have to do… is write the story.
A quester’s story.
Chapter 1: Attributes & Stats
These are some things about your character you need to know. Learn them well.
Attributes
Strength (STR)
Your strength is your power. Your ferocity. Your anger. Your blade. Strength is lifting a stone and throwing it at your enemies. It is carving a sword through armour. It is grabbing a beast by its teeth and throwing it to the ground. It is is your ally through all that you face. It is simply strength.
Intelligence (INT)
Intelligence is learning and reasoning. It is perception and knowledge. When something is to be known, intelligence is there. Intelligence is powerful, archaic magic. Intelligence is gathering information. Intelligence is playing chess with him, distracting him, and killing him quickly with magical fire.
Dexterity (DEX)
If you want to put an arrow in a man’s head, if you want to dodge the heaviest blow, if you want to rush towards (or away from) your enemies, if you want to stab him in the places that hurt, if you just want to fold a paper crane, then you’ll have to catch dexterity before it escapes.
Endurance (END)
And so the hero walked across the map, barely a drop of sweat touching his face. He was hit by a thousand blows and yet he kept going. No heat or cold would touch him, nor would any wind move him. Armed only with his endurance and a gigantic set of back breaking armour.
Willpower (WILL)
One usually underestimates willpower. Without will, you run away at the first sight of fear. Without will, you lack the soul of a musician, the charisma of a talker, and the fortitude to block out manipulation. Let the others hack ‘n slash – you’ve just talked yourself to a paid vacation. In a villa. By the beach.

Stats
Hit points (HP)
Your heart and soul. This is the amount of damage you can take before death. When this falls to zero, you become near death. Take a heart of damage near death, you die.
Armour
These helpful contraptions will prevent damage from one of the four types of weapons (Sharp, Blunt, Point or Magic.) Sharp is the most common armour and Blunt is the rarest armour.
Powers
These are spells or abilities that all adventurers can use. They may be useful in combat, out of combat, or maybe both. They rely upon power points to be used.
Power point (Pp.)
These stars have many useful abilities. The first being using powers. The second is using one to reroll a dice. The third is using one to have an extra turn. Every time the character rests, they gain five PP.
Items
Everything your character is currently carrying. This can include weapons, armour, books, scrolls, treasure, and more. See “items” for more info.
Chapter 2: How to play
Welcome to the questers story. I tried to focus this RPG on simplicity, and I hope you like it.
Making a character
Step 1: Find a name. The quester’s story is a role playing game, where you pretend to be someone else. You should pick a name that isn’t your name. Ask your GM or your peers for advice if you’re stuck.
Step 2: Find a race. There are a few races, or species, available to choose from. These can be found in the extras chapter. If you are using Race rules each race gets unique powers. Otherwise, races are equal.
Step 3: Choose a class. This choice is very important to your stats, your powers, and your equipment. See the classes’ chapter for more details.
Step 4: Decide powers and equipment. Look to the classes section of this guide to decide on one power and an equipment set to start with. If you are not using Race rules, get another power.
Step 5: Allocate attributes. You have fifteen attribute points. Place them in one of the five attributes, with a maximum of five for one of them. Make sure the top attributes are important to your class.
Step 6: Fill in your classes total HP and five PP.
Gameplay
Rolling dice: When you want to do something that has the chance to fail, roll the dice and add the appropriate attribute. If this exceeds the difficulty (which the GM will tell you) you succeed. Example; Jon, who has five strength, wants to lift a heavy stone. The difficulty is eight. He rolls a four… and four plus five equals nine, which is higher than the difficulty, therefore he succeeds in lifting the stone. However, if he wants to lift a pebble, there is no chance to fail, so he succeeds automatically.
Chapter 3: Classes
Fighter
Equipment: A choice of Chain-mail and shield, or Scale armour, & a choice of a basic hammer, sword, or axe, & a crossbow.
Powers: (1 power every level plus 1 at lv.6+)
 Speedy attacks: Deal .5 sharp damage to every enemy close-by. Costs 2.5 PP to learn and .5 PP to use.
 Arrow deflection: you get +.5 Point armour for one turn. Costs 3 PP to learn and 1 PP to use.
 Blunted blow: a slash weapon becomes a blunt attack for one turn. Costs 3 PP to learn and .5 PP to use.
 Intimidate: force an enemy to a Medium Will roll, or they become scared. Costs 2.5 PP to learn and 1 PP to use.
 Smell of blood: deal +2 slash damage to a bleeding enemy. Costs 3 PP to learn and 1.5 PP to use.
 Spell-sizzle: attack an enemy and stop them from using any magic on their turn. Costs 3.5 PP to learn and 1.5 PP to use.
This is an RPG I've been working on.
I really need some suggestions on what to add, what won't work, what to change, etc.
If you help, I will give you all an imaginary flaming vorpal mace, a weapon with one heart of sharp damage, two hearts of blunt damage, and the fire status effect.
If you don't, I will use my Magic surge power to add 2 hearts of magical damage to my staff, and strike you down with balls of fire.
PS. I sometimes make references to chapters I haven't written yet. Don't worry 'bout it.

Probably Pixel
2016-03-01, 04:37 AM
Anybody?
It doesn't have to have mechanics, it can just be a suggestion.

Philemonite
2016-03-01, 12:21 PM
Let's start with classes, because that's my favorite part. Do you want a handful of flexible classes? Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Priest. Each one can have a set of archetypes to cover different options. Or, maybe you want more classes? Then you need to make sure that every class has something that makes them stand out.

I don't like how PP work. I like having to thing about how I spend my resources, but I like my temporary resources separate from permanent ones.

JanusJones
2016-03-01, 01:17 PM
This seems similar to a lot of games out there - classic battle tactic focused rpgs. If you're just looking to experiment and think up your own system, that's awesome!

But as a homebrew, what is it you're looking to accomplish that other systems fail to offer? What's your design goal? If we understood your concept better, it could help folks be clearer and more constructive with comments, methinks!

Cheers!