Creating a rules-light system.

[Delicious Taffy]

Back in high school, I came up with an idea, which I thought was completely original at the time. My idea was to create a narrative-driven game wherein each player controlled one character, describing their actions and dictating their dialogue. There would be one player who took note of everything, taking the role of a sort of narrator or "game master". Dice could maybe be involved, somehow, possibly to determine the outcome of some of these actions. D&D? Isn't that that weird board game super-nerds play in abandoned sheds in the woods? No, thanks. I don't really like board games all that much. Several years later, I stumbled across the webcomic DM of the Rings, and was instantly whisked away into the world of tabletop roleplaying. I looked upon my own creation and felt humility. The game I had dismissed before turned out to be one of the most interesting hobbies I'd ever learned of.

Fast-forward to the present day. With just a tad over 2 years of experience as my group's Dungeon Master, I've recently grown a bit tired of managing handbooks, item charts, and character sheets. I needed something fresh, something light on rules, something I could run without having to check something every few minutes to settle an argument with a player. I looked back on my older work, my early proto-RPG, and I felt inspiration again. I had never thought to add more than a few basic rules on how much players could carry, as well as how time worked in the setting I'd created. This was something I could flesh out and make into something of a proper gaming system.

I spent a few days refining and polishing my old creation, and I'm reasonably satisfied with the results. Originally, there was the assumption that everyone would be playing as a human, so I had never felt the need to create races. Now, I've combined in a few other ideas I came up with over the years, and the result is four playable races, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. I've also streamlined the inventory system - each player gets a certain amount of free carry space, courtesy of a portable gadget, and the rest is restricted to what they can carry in their pockets and whatever storage they can reasonably carry, like a backpack or purse. Naturally, I've added dice to the game, specifically the d20, d10, d8, and d6, each with their own separate purpose. The only combat rules I added were hit points and energy. Taking damage reduces HP, exertion reduces Energy, and rest, medicine, and food can replenish both. Aside from these basic guidelines, everything else will be decided based on context and whatever seems fun at the time.

If anyone is interested in trying this creation out, there are only two small files to download. I've created the basic rules (https://www.dropbox.com/s/pol8xaf10tyn9zz/New%20World%200-Startup.rtf?dl=0=0), as well as a very simplistic character sheet. (https://www.dropbox.com/s/5yfl48ipnvs7r32/New%20World%200-Character%20Sheet.rtf?dl=0) Feel free to provide feedback on anything. I'm always open to suggestions.

[Bruno Carvalho]

I fail to see where this is a game at all. There are some hints at a setting, some hints at player characters, and some hints at a game system, but nothing more than some small hints and that is all.

For example: Everything you say about skills is "use a d20". Use a d20 so what? Do you want to roll high? Roll low? Roll a specific number (s)? Contemplate the wisdom of icosaedric forms?

There are so many things without explanation here that we cannot even review your document.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I fail to see where this is a game at all. There are some hints at a setting, some hints at player characters, and some hints at a game system, but nothing more than some small hints and that is all.

For example: Everything you say about skills is "use a d20". Use a d20 so what? Do you want to roll high? Roll low? Roll a specific number (s)? Contemplate the wisdom of icosaedric forms?

There are so many things without explanation here that we cannot even review your document.
Largely agreed. There's a lot of fun little details (though I have no idea why Anthromech are a different race with their own traits), but... I can't get much of a picture of the setting, beyond "transhumanist future with madcap genetics," and none at all of the system. Rules on time and carrying capacity are, 99% of the time, irrelevant in an RPG. What matters is capabilities-- what can the characters accomplish, and with what likelihood of success? Are there more rules you forgot to include here?

You say you don't like the depth of rules D&D gives you? Wonderful; there are about a thousand other games out there. Look at things like Fate, Powered By The Apocalypse games (Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, etc), the West-End Games d6 System, Savage Worlds... heck, look at Fiasco, look at Risus: The Anything RPG. There's a whole world of games that aren't D&D-style crunch heavy. Even if you want to create your own system because it's fun (and it is; I've been working on mine for years), it's worth getting a sense of what's out there, how other games handle things.

[Delicious Taffy]

See, this is why I posted this thread on this particular site, and not some other one I'm not as familiar with. You've pointed out exactly what needs improvement and where the obvious weak points are. Now, I can actually work on patching those problems up, instead of someone simply telling me "Your system is bad, and you're an idiot with no future." Thanks for the feedback, I'll be sure to work on what's been pointed out so far.

[Cluedrew]

The most important comment I have has already been voiced: The underlying system is incomplete to the point of being unusable. You might want to work on that.

Other points:
Don't mess with time. There are things that can be done by playing with sessions or the day/night cycle, but I don't think messing with the number of seconds in an hour will help there.
Similarly I think the metric/imperial table is unnecessary.
Races are interesting, or have the potential to be.
Why Hexadecimal blood colours? Maybe you can just leave the specification of colour open (and the gene therapists translate that to a colour code).
Why does inventory size scale with age? I can understand an upgrade when you reach adulthood, but a slight increase in size every 5 years... Why?
What is the conflict/source of conflict in this setting?


Of course these are all my initial reactions and I could be wrong, but at least give each point a thought.

Also, welcome to the long road.

[Delicious Taffy]

Don't mess with time. There are things that can be done by playing with sessions or the day/night cycle, but I don't think messing with the number of seconds in an hour will help there.
Similarly I think the metric/imperial table is unnecessary.
Races are interesting, or have the potential to be.
Why Hexadecimal blood colours? Maybe you can just leave the specification of colour open (and the gene therapists translate that to a colour code).
Why does inventory size scale with age? I can understand an upgrade when you reach adulthood, but a slight increase in size every 5 years... Why?
What is the conflict/source of conflict in this setting?


I'll try to respond to these individually.

The time thing I can see being a bit confusing at first, but I came up with it because pretty much everything, even media explicitly set on different planets and worlds, uses the exact same time measurements as Earth. The whole point is for it to be strange. That said, I'd rather swallow it and deal with using the same time measurements everyone else does, instead of wrestling a player because he insists on doing it anyway.

The metric/imperial thing is there for a quick reference, mostly to keep my windows and tabs to a minimum while playing. I want the measurements to be in metric, but the U.S. insists on using imperial, and I'm not a fan of it.

If you have any suggestions on what could be done with the races, I'm all ears. I already feel like the Anthromechs need some sort of tweaking, and the Saargas could stand a bit as well. I do know that I'd like to keep things reasonably loose, which is why I haven't set specific speeds or pressure levels, instead opting for reasonably-clear but still open descriptions such as "can run as fast as a car driving a little too fast in town". If that needs to be tightened, do let me know.

The hexadecimal thing is mostly a remnant for when I was planning to use Paint.net for most of the illustrations. I tend to have players who zero in on one minor detail and insist on making it as elaborate as possible, so the hex colors are there to let them play with the color wheel on their own time and just give me the code to use later. I figure "70B0FF" is easier to work with in the program than "Dusty Spring Afternoon" or "Sort of a lightish blue, but like, almost an aqua-teal color also." Admittedly, it's still a little redundant, but I don't plan on using this system with a very wide crowd, even after it's been tweaked.

As for the inventory size scaling with age, I probably will change that a bit. Now that it's been said, I can't stop noticing how strange it really is to have it scale the way it does.

The conflict/source of conflict is still up in the air. Considering that the technology is at a level where genetic engineering is so easy and common among humans that it's starting to be a problem, but people still have a need for jobs and currency, I'm really not sure what to do with that.

Ultimately, this is a system I intend to use when I need a break in my other campaigns, unless my players find it engaging enough to make it a mainstay. Way back when I made the original documents for it, I had no idea this sort of game existed, or at least how they worked, and I planned on simply writing things down in a manner similar to a script or story. My main source of inspiration was the book The City of Ember and its sequels, and I just might end up moving more toward that sort of setting, rather than the current concept of iPod-chic futuristic sci-fi.