PDA

View Full Version : my very own rpg game



herzsprung
2018-04-07, 08:49 PM
Hello ladies and gentlemen
I’m new here and this is my first post

I am a design student and am creating my own RPG game. I’m designing the whole thing. The box, the shield, the manual, etc.
This is my final work before I finish university and have until November to get it all done, but I’m very optimistic. I’m researching the best way to use Design to encourage creativity, critical thinking and learning through a playful and fun way
So, I’d like your help to create a cool game. =D

Let me share a little bit about my ideas and about the world, system and mechanics
It’s all about cats actually. 2 continents that have a vast ocean dividing them have developed 2 major species; felines and humans. While there are other intelligent races in the world they are from very specific areas of the globe and, thus, no playable
Humans have developed in a harsh desert and since always have had the aptitude to master the arts of magic. Powerful empires have risen thanks to shaman and witches. They are a tought, resilient race and the various human nations are either nomadic tribals or medieval like nations
The Felines, on the other hand, have no such understanding of magic and have, thus, developed with machinery and black powder. They sail to the unknown with their steam engines, automobiles and guns. They are half the size of humans but very agile, civilized race

I want my game to take place during the discovery of the human continent, when the felines start sailing the world and there’s a lot of racial tension in the air. Humans may be tough warriors or may practice dark arts, while the felines can be sharpshooters or mechanics, for example

I’m still in doubt about the system. I like the GURPS character creation a lot, but I really ducking love the d20 system and the cool dices. So idk. I wanted a fast and easy system and something fun for both magic and gun user.

And that’s my idea. I suppose people who don’t really like cats and won’t enjoy it so much fun, so yeah.. What do you guys think?

aimlessPolymath
2018-04-07, 09:57 PM
Could you clarify what you're asking, or give more details?

This sounds like a fine outline for a setting, but there isn't much for me to go on.

On the difference between d20 and Gurps: I believe Gurps is best for lower-level, gritty games, but struggles with high-level characters- the equivalents of superheroes. I believe both are fairly modular systems, so it shouldn't be too hard to modify either for your game.

Goaty14
2018-04-08, 09:48 AM
Yea -- this is *probably* creating your own setting, since you haven't mentioned any mechanics yet. Not that there is any shame in doing so -- D&D's Eberron is a great example of tacking on a setting to a system, yet still making a completely different game.


On the difference between d20 and Gurps: I believe Gurps is best for lower-level, gritty games, but struggles with high-level characters- the equivalents of superheroes. I believe both are fairly modular systems, so it shouldn't be too hard to modify either for your game.

D&D 3.5 (which is d20) also has the same problem. That said, there's no shame in restricting players to lower levels! Gandalf was a 5th level wizard (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?7338-Gandalf-was-only-a-Fifth-Level-Magic-User!), and some systems exist for just this purpose (http://esix.pbworks.com/w/page/9900109/FrontPage). Depending on where you expect the PCs to end up should govern how high-level you should let them be. EDIT: Actually, don't use 3.5 -- it has a lot of differences between OP Wizards and lowly fighters that you're better off using a different system.

Grod_The_Giant
2018-04-08, 10:09 AM
It's a cool setting idea, yeah. And I guess you could use d20 damage dice with GURPS-style point buy?

If you like lots of different dice, have you checked out Savage Worlds? There the various levels of skill mean you roll larger dice against a static DC of 4.

jqavins
2018-04-08, 01:37 PM
It's unanimous that what you've described is a setting, and not a system. "Unanimous" seems to include you, as you stated in the OP that you're choosing between GURPS and d20 for a system. So let's consider that matter settled: it's a setting.

Long ago, I switched from AD&D to GURPS because I liked the radical flexibility, even though it's rather complicated and somewhat harder to play. d20 is simpler but not as flexible: in my opinion it offers a better compromise between the two, and I switched to it; if it had come out enough sooner I would never have gone GURPS.

Note, I've written d20, and not 3.x up 'till now. What you might want to do is use d20 but throw away many, most, or all of the D&D classes, feats, and skills, and make up your own that are more suitable to your setting. Mixing d20 Modern (for the guns, cars, etc.) with D&D (for the magic) and keeping it balanced will certainly call for considerable customization, so you could just do the classes etc. from scratch, built on a d20 framework.

Take a look at Pathfinder too, as it's possible that they've done a better job of mixing tech levels.

Which is all just my $0.02.

Knaight
2018-04-08, 01:59 PM
You've set yourself a pretty ambitious goal here - a whole setting in either d20 or GURPS in 7 months is no mean feat, particularly if you need an actual, well designed, physical product to present. If you're also making the mechanical side of a game that 7 month schedule drifts from ambitious to punitive. That's not to say that it can't be done, just that major publishers routinely take significantly longer than that with full teams.

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 05:22 PM
Okay, first things first. Thank you very much for replying.

I have set for myself a goal of creating a roleplaying game in a fantasy world of my own in around 350 days. So far so good, i've been drawing and writing a lot in the past months.

Now

About my University. By the end of a 4 to 5 year course we must prepare ourselves in the period of one year to come up with a academic reseach able to solve any sort of problem to contribute with society. I chose RPG's as a tool to improve creativity and critical thinking and now i'm listing books and articles that prove that RPG may be used in study, medicine, etc. Being a Design student i must design something, thus, i'm making my own game.

SO WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR IS HELP IN GENERAL TO MAKE A COOL GAME

About the system and the setting. I already have descriptions of monsters, races, places etc but no mechanics so far. That's because i'm still uncertain but i want a fast and easy game. Create your characters quickly and play. I said somthings about GURPS before, but i was thinking about a system called 3d&t which is played only with d6 kinda like GURPS but also much easier.

BUT i also love the cool dices from the d20 system and i was thinking about using combat (magic and weapons) with d4, d8, d10 and so on

to the guy who said *"It's a cool setting idea, yeah. And I guess you could use d20 damage dice with GURPS-style point buy?"* Yeah, pretty much it.

So, this is gonna be the 1.0 version of my game which i have a little less then 6 months to put together. Worry not, i can make it. This is a thing i'm doing with passion and once it's complete i wanna keep working on it. :)

jqavins
2018-04-08, 05:46 PM
So, you've decided, at least in broad terms what the system is going to be? Fine. Good. A necessary step one out of the way. My earlier comments were a bit off the mark.

When you write something like "SO WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR IS HELP IN GENERAL TO MAKE A COOL GAME" you can count on getting bits and pieces of advice that are all over the map as far as what they pertain to, as long as they have something to do with the game. Such as, advice on picking a system even though you've already done so. So if you want advice in particular areas, you really have to make a somewhat more targeted request.

Are you looking for mechanics that combine 3d&t multiple die sizes? (I'll go look at 3d&t; never heard of it before now.)
Are you looking for help fleshing out the stats for the monsters you've picked? You haven't told us what they are.
Are you looking for more monsters?
Are you looking for setting or societal details? They'll have to fit in with any broad concepts and particular details you've already got. You gave us some, but I'll just bet there's more.
Are you looking for accompanying premade adventures?
Something else?
Just as importantly, which of these or other things are you not looking for?

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 06:13 PM
So, you've decided, at least in broad terms what the system is going to be? Fine. Good. A necessary step one out of the way. My earlier comments were a bit off the mark.

When you write something like "SO WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR IS HELP IN GENERAL TO MAKE A COOL GAME" you can count on getting bits and pieces of advice that are all over the map as far as what they pertain to, as long as they have something to do with the game. Such as, advice on picking a system even though you've already done so. So if you want advice in particular areas, you really have to make a somewhat more targeted request.

Are you looking for mechanics that combine 3d&t multiple die sizes? (I'll go look at 3d&t; never heard of it before now.)
Are you looking for help fleshing out the stats for the monsters you've picked? You haven't told us what they are.
Are you looking for more monsters?
Are you looking for setting or societal details? They'll have to fit in with any broad concepts and particular details you've already got. You gave us some, but I'll just bet there's more.
Are you looking for accompanying premade adventures?
Something else?
Just as importantly, which of these or other things are you not looking for?






Well... I'll need help with all those things at some point. There are many months ahead.

The most important thing i need right now is to decide on a system

I want something easy for everyone, sandbox like, where people can create their characters very fast and that is good enough for magic and gun users

FreddyNoNose
2018-04-08, 06:24 PM
Op, you sound like you are trying to do present more than one thing. First you want to create a world, but then it sounds like you have to create a game for a homework assignment. One is a goal the other might be a result or something else. You need to present a single thing you want.

As to cool, that doesn't seem to match with the homework assignment of learning...


How about metaing it: You create a game that the players have to do exactly what your assignment requires you to do?

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 06:30 PM
Op, you sound like you are trying to do present more than one thing. First you want to create a world, but then it sounds like you have to create a game for a homework assignment. One is a goal the other might be a result or something else. You need to present a single thing you want.

As to cool, that doesn't seem to match with the homework assignment of learning...


How about metaing it: You create a game that the players have to do exactly what your assignment requires you to do?



Yes, i have this big homework thing, the catch is i can choose whatever subject i want.

So i'm making a game and it's gonna be ready by december. I'm just here to see if people can help me do it.

Argothair
2018-04-08, 07:11 PM
I think you're way too early in the process to be asking for feedback, herzsprung.

A very short outline of an original campaign setting might be two pages long. You've written about one paragraph; you say there are two continents, one of which is full of cats with guns and steamships and is in the process of discovering the second continent, which is full of magically talented humans, and which is mostly desert. OK, fine. So, what kind of magic? What kind of steam engines? How do the humans grow food in a desert? What kind of climates do the cats live in? What kinds of homes, shops, factories, and gardens do they build? Other than "powerful empires," what do we know about the politics on each continent? What kind of people go adventuring, and why? What kinds of adventures do they have? Why? You've got the very beginnings of a potentially interesting setting, but you have to say much more about your world before we can say whether it's good or bad or how to improve it. Read the 9-part series right here at http://www.giantitp.com/Gaming.html to see how this works.

A very simple set of roleplaying mechanics might be five pages long. You haven't written any mechanics down at all -- you just say that you want something "fast and easy" that supports magic and guns, and you mention d20 and GURPS, which are two of the most famous systems. That really doesn't tell us anything at all about how your system would work. It's very simple to *say* you want "fast and easy" mechanics. It's very hard to *make* fast and easy mechanics. You can learn more about why it's hard and what questions you'll need to answer at http://theangrygm.com/crafting-herbcraft-part-1/.

One last note: you're coming at this project with lots of enthusiasm, cheerfulness, confidence, and open-mindedness. Those are all useful qualities to have, but you should be careful not to let your self-confidence get in the way of appreciating the hugeness of the problem you're trying to solve. Making a new game is hard. You could easily invest six months into making a new game and then it turns out that the game isn't fun or clear or useful to anyone. So far, it looks like you've put less than an hour of work into designing your game, and you're already here on the Internet asking for help. Worse, you're not asking for specific pieces of advice or otherwise displaying an awareness of the size of the problem you're working on -- the only question you've asked so far is "What do you think?". At some level, asking other people for advice on a big problem without specifying what parts of the problem you want help with is disrespectful -- it suggests that you're either: (a) trying to get people on this forum to do the hard parts of your college capstone project for you for free, which would be rude because you would be stealing other people's work, or (b) you haven't yet realized how difficult your project is going to be, which would be rude because you would be implicitly minimizing or trivializing the struggles of other designers.

So, I wish you luck with your design, but I also hope that you will take the designing process somewhat more seriously.

aimlessPolymath
2018-04-08, 07:27 PM
I want something easy for everyone, sandbox like, where people can create their characters very fast and that is good enough for magic and gun users

A glance at Wikipedia indicates that 3D&T, the system you suggested looks like a system that fits these requirements very well.

I don't consider what dice are used to be a major factor in system choice, though others may disagree.

Edit: Argothair just said everything I wish I could have thought to say.

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 07:31 PM
90% true. Let me say what i already have and what i still need.

I have around 50 pages of written content.

-All races and subraces and their illustrations
-All empires and their culture/history and bonuses
-All the monsters descriptions
-so far 68 illustration of weapons and i'm still finishing their mechanics
-all classes and their bonuses
-combat tactics
-Advantages and disadvantages
-random drawings about the world
-the design of the manual


the thing i still need the most is a decent system which is what is holding me back because i have all the descriptions and none of the mechanics


now the other 10% - you are kind of a rude person

i'm trying my very best to create a game. i haven't even graduated yet and i'm trying to do something really cool professionally and this inspires myself

And no i don't want people to do my university work. I already have researched all i need.


What i want and none of you seem to understand so far is to share my thoughts with you guys. So far i have read really useful ideas that you guys gave me and i'm loving it.

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 07:41 PM
and sorry if i'm somehow not being clear and or misleading

aimlessPolymath
2018-04-08, 08:02 PM
I have around 50 pages of written content.

-All races and subraces and their illustrations
-All empires and their culture/history and bonuses
-All the monsters descriptions
-so far 68 illustration of weapons and i'm still finishing their mechanics
-all classes and their bonuses
-combat tactics
-Advantages and disadvantages
-random drawings about the world
-the design of the manual

This is a great detail more information than you had presented in your first post, which was very close to the stereotypical "I have a great idea but have done little of the work" post - light on detail. Among other things, the fact that you told us that you intended to design a box and manual, etc. without mentioning how much of it you had already done was a notable omission :smalltongue:.

Many of these details (esp. combat tactics and classes, which are intricately interwoven with the system) are important for us to be able to answer your questions well. The more information you can give us about your needs, the better we can help you. Furthermore, showing that you have already done some work to create the system shows that you respect us and our work.

If you have 50 pages already written, I hope than you can give us more than two paragraphs before asking "what do you think?".

You've told us that you want a light-weight system, but that's not a lot to go on.
Here are my questions(many interconnected) for you regarding the system you want:
How dangerous should it be? How many "second chances" do players get (a major difference between d20 and GURPS IMO)?
What range of character powerlevels do you expect to be most relevant?
What "genre" or genres do you want to support (dungeoneering, social, exploration, horror)?

jqavins
2018-04-08, 08:29 PM
and sorry if i'm somehow not being clear and or misleadingDon't apologize; correct.

I have around 50 pages of written content.Oh, heck! Why didn't you say so in the first place?! Put it all up on Google Drive or something and let people have a look at it.

the thing i still need the most is a decent systemNow I'm more confused on this point. First it seemed like this was what you were asking, then you seemed to say that you had chosen a blend of d20 and 3d&t but needed help fashioning said blend. Are you saying that you're back to selecting, or are you still on fashioning? If it's fashioning, have you got anything more to go on what I've just typed? It doesn't seem you do, but then it didn't seem, earlier in the thread, you had anywhere near the 50 pages we now know you do.

Please put all your cards on the table.


i'm trying my very best to create a game. i haven't even graduated yet and i'm trying to do something really cool professionally and this inspires myselfWhich is to say, that you haven't even graduated but are taking on, singlehandedly, a task that teams experienced professionals take twice as long to perform. It's a lot to ask that inspiration should get you there, but I sincerely wish you luck.

What i want and none of you seem to understand so far is to share my thoughts with you guys. So far i have read really useful ideas that you guys gave me and i'm loving it.
Sharing thoughts is one thing, and a fine thing indeed. But you've also explicitly asked for help, haven't you? And asking for help is also a fine thing in general, and a fine thing up to a point when you're doing the work for credit. But to get really useful help, you've got to be better at the thought sharing part; you've got to share all the cards.

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 09:00 PM
The whole "system" thing. Short answer is: I have no idea

My friends and i and i play a lot of rpg but usually i play a character and not a DM, i don't know many different types of open source systems. That is what i need a lotta help with (apparently)

Some guy said i should put it all in google drive. I did. In portuguese.

Some of you folks researched a system called 3d&t. It is a brazilian system. And so am i.

But anyway. 3d&t is sort of like GURPS. you choose a bunch of advantages and disadvantages for your characters. For example.

you have 10 points to spend on your character, like, heavy handed, agile, etc. If you want more point you need disadvantages to counter it. Drunk costs -2, blind costs -3 points.

So if in the beggining you had 10 points to spend now you have 12, 13 etc.

This is extremely fast to create new characters and very good for newbie players.

BUT both Gurps and 3d&t are d6 based.Which is fine i guess, but i still love d10s, d4s... and i think my magic itens and guns should use them somehow

Fact is. no system is perfect for my game and i know that i have absolutely not enough time to create my own system - THUS - i'm feeling lost

To the person who asked what elements i want in my game (dungeoneering, social, exploration) i want it to be a very free enviroment, after all i'm researching about creativity, so i don't really need such complicated rules for my game. What i love the most about RPG is roleplaying and the characters interacting with each other. You know, your typical party going on adventures to solve problems and kill beats.

I don't want it to be horror, survival, like at all. Which means it shouldn't be that easy to get killed in the game.

And yeah, i know my game won't be failproof by the end of the year. hell, i won't even have that much time to test it properly. But it doesn't matter. By december i want sort of a prototype of my game. Something obviously well designed though, but not the finished thing.

As i said before, i'm doing this with passion and after i graduate i wanna keep working on it.

aimlessPolymath
2018-04-08, 09:22 PM
Some guy said i should put it all in google drive. I did. In portuguese.
Fair.


BUT both Gurps and 3d&t are d6 based.Which is fine i guess, but i still love d10s, d4s... and i think my magic itens and guns should use them somehow

If 3d&t matches your requirements of being simple+easy to use, and is flexible enough to cover most situations, then I would say to use it.

I'm not exactly clear on the mechanics of it (I couldn't find an english pdf), but it seems to me that the dice used for the game are less important than the game being easy and understandable.

One thing you could do, if you're attached to other sizes of dice (and I am not saying this is a good idea, or that it actually works here), is to use a conversion table on averages

Edit:
Found what you want (as far as I know).
Savage Worlds. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Worlds)
-Traits are a die size; you can have a d4, a d6, or a d12 in Strength, and that's what you roll.
-Billed as "easy to learn"- haven't read it yet, so I can't confirm this
-Advantages and disadvantages should be easily adapted to your setting
-Generic
-Free partial rules (https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/peg-freebies/TD06.pdf) available to look over

jqavins
2018-04-08, 09:44 PM
If 3d&t matches your requirements of being simple+easy to use, and is flexible enough to cover most situations, then I would say to use it.

I'm not exactly clear on the mechanics of it (I couldn't find an english pdf), but it seems to me that the dice used for the game are less important than the game being easy and understandable.

One thing you could do, if you're attached to other sizes of dice (and I am not saying this is a good idea, or that it actually works here), is to use a conversion table on averages
Aimless, if you want to read more on 3D&T, try the Wiki, which is here (http://pt-br.3det.wikia.com/wiki/Wiki_3D%26T). I'm reading it now with automatic translation by Chrome, and it reads fine.

Herzsprung, I read through the strikethrough, and it says basically what I wanted to: if 3D&T works for you in all ways except the fun dice shapes, I'd say use it. Letting the fancy dice go may not feel good, but compromise never does. If you can use a tested system intact and spend all your time on the setting, it is my opinion that you should do so. I don't know Savage Worlds, and maybe it gives you the same ability. After I read through the 3D&T wiki, maybe I'll check out Savage Worlds before or after your material. (I'm trusting that I can get Google to translate your stuff for me as well as they are doing with the wiki currently.)

Since you have a regular gaming group with experience in various systems, have you asked them about a system recommendation?

herzsprung
2018-04-08, 10:26 PM
Thank you very much guys and girls

I'll read the material you recomended and keep you informed about my year long journey.

You are great people

Grod_The_Giant
2018-04-09, 06:45 AM
BUT both Gurps and 3d&t are d6 based.Which is fine i guess, but i still love d10s, d4s... and i think my magic itens and guns should use them somehow
I'm not familiar with 3d&t, but if it uses a hit point type system you could probably import the d20 "different die shapes for different weapon/spell damage rolls" bit.


To the person who asked what elements i want in my game (dungeoneering, social, exploration) i want it to be a very free enviroment, after all i'm researching about creativity, so i don't really need such complicated rules for my game. What i love the most about RPG is roleplaying and the characters interacting with each other. You know, your typical party going on adventures to solve problems and kill beats.
This part seems a little contradictory, tho. Are you looking for a robust-common-mechanic system that can be used for any sort of encounter, or a primary-combat-engine-with-a-skill-list like D&D?

EDIT: Also, if you're looking into established RPGs, it might be worth checking out Fate (https://fate-srd.com/), one of the most popular rules-light (ish) narrative (ish) systems out there. It's got a basic skill-based engine, but the interesting part is the use of "Aspects." Characters and scenes get defined in terms of "Aspects," short descriptive bits like "bad tempered" or "literally on fire," and the game has various ways to bring them into play-- getting bonuses from relevant Aspects, creating new ones, forcing people and events to behave in line with Aspects, and so on. The combat engine is intentionally generic, and can be used to turn everything from fistfights to arguments to wilderness navigation into a dynamic, back-and-forth conflict.

Climowitz
2018-04-09, 04:16 PM
To start you should define yourself some limits. How much can the player decide, and how much will be restricted to tables, randomness and the system itselft. For example D&D 3.5 has a lot of dice rolling, to set succes and failure, or outcome. And a restriction to class and race. You can chose a very on the run kind of pc or a strict set up proggression, or a pick from the box kind of thing. Also you should decide what things, are to be made by the players, and what by the game or dm itselft. For example, you said you have 2 races, so that's off the question, but what about each aspect of the creature itself, phisical, mental or spiritual.

Try to narrow a bit your ideal system, before getting too specific. Start with a big circle of an idea, and from ther, get more and more detailed.

I hope i could make myself clear ^^.

herzsprung
2018-04-10, 02:18 AM
Are you looking for a robust-common-mechanic system that can be used for any sort of encounter, or a primary-combat-engine-with-a-skill-list like D&D?

That's what i had no idea about.

It was a very good thing i came to share my opinions here because you guys asked many questions i hadn't asked myself before. I want a game to stimulate creativity as much as possible so i decided i need easy to learn/fast to play system and not something full of rules like D&D or GURPS.

And well, so far, so good. I have everything going according to plan thankfuly. I'm ahead of schedule with my research and have a lot of written content about the world (same with drawings, but i still have a lot of sketches and i still need to add watercolor on most of them)

Let me be honest, you guys scared me in the beggining saying it would be hard to do what i wanted to do.
I'll make you guys proud though. I'm working real hard.

Cluedrew
2018-04-10, 07:37 AM
For central-resolution vs. combat-plus-skills: it really comes down to how much attention is combat going to get. If it is about as much or more as the rest of the system, then you do combat-plus-skills. Otherwise I think central-resolution works better because it spreads the attention around so that everything has enough depth you can spend meaningful time there.


Let me be honest, you guys scared me in the beggining saying it would be hard to do what i wanted to do.You probably should be a little scared. Its not impossible but it is going to be hard. For reference I am 4 years into my project and I'm just starting to make the first draft of the rulebook. Mind you it hasn't been my only project in that time. And I made my own base resolution system, from scratch. If you want to get this done in time: Don't do that.

Gorum
2018-04-10, 08:35 AM
I am a design student and am creating my own RPG game. (...) It’s all about cats actually.


Learn supply and demand. Some rare individuals might like Cats that much, but unless on super-weeaboo internet games (and even them) no group will ever play in such a universe. That is, in all my years as a TTRPG player, I crossed at least 40 other players, and 1 of them played catfolks / were-cats and such. And it made everyone else uncomfortable.

TTRPGs are a niche hobby. Why exclude 95%+ of your potential customer base by accommodating ONLY cat-lovers? You could reach a far larger audience by allowing other animal-people into it. Wolve-people alone should quadruple your audience. Boars, Mice, Bats and Snakes will all dramatically increase it too (But not as much as wolves).



I’m still in doubt about the system. I like the GURPS character creation a lot, but I really ducking love the d20 system and the cool dices. So idk. I wanted a fast and easy system and something fun for both magic and gun user.

So you're not designing a RPG, merely a setting. d20 has a lot of randomness in it (as each result of a wide range has the same % of chance of happening). Succeeding with a large margin will not lead to more damage / barely hitting might do as much damage as a critical. If you intend the game to be played somewhat seriously, leave d20 alone.

d20 also presuppose a class system.

herzsprung
2018-04-10, 12:05 PM
Okay, 2 things

Yeah, i know that only people who like cats may like the game even though my setting is FULL of other cool features. It is okay though. I don't mind. I know there still are gonna be people who enjoy it nonetheless

And about the variety of races and the schedule i set for myself.

I have a group of friends here in Brazil who i play/work with and we are designing our own game for a little more then 1 year now. Yes. We do understand how much hard work it is needed. (and no, it is not all about cats either)

BUT, i'm also graduating and i wanted to make "my very own rpg game" THUS i came here "looking fo help in general"

Xzoltar
2018-04-10, 07:29 PM
Good luck with your project. I think you have a good project idea and in doing a research you will be able to prove that RPG help people in many way (even the CIA make their agent play RPG)

For your project you should do a Light version, so try to have onle basic races and classes like 4-5 of each no more. With a lite rules system, it will make its much easier to understand, it should probably a Introduction system for those who never have played Tabletop RPG before. After your project, with your friend you can develop it more and add more races, classes and rules.

Now as for the sytem to use if you use something like D20, Shadowrun, GURPS or whatever other system that already exist, im not sure it will still have the same impact as designing your own from scrath. You can still adapt a system for your own (see how they made a adaptation of Warcraft to D20)

As people have already said many time, currently we have no idea on how we can really help. Ask 10 gamer what system you should use and you will probably have 8 different answers. I also dont understand how you can have design the class (you said even including the bonuses) without having a system...

I'll gladly help, but currently don't know how I can. A setting about cat have no interest for me, but I know you world will have other things beside cats, just that from what we know, its more a niche rpg (witch is not necessary a bad idea)

jqavins
2018-04-10, 09:18 PM
Ask 10 gamer what system you should use and you will probably have 8 different answers.More like ask 10 of us and you's get 12 different answers.:smallamused:

herzsprung
2018-04-10, 10:43 PM
Good luck with your project. I think you have a good project idea and in doing a research you will be able to prove that RPG help people in many way



This person right here gets it :)

Yes sir or madam, I 100% agree

I have chosen, in fact, a easy and carefree type of system called 3d&t and i'm doing some minor changes to it to better fit my game

And about not having mechanics but still having written content. What i do have are most of the descriptions.

-I described the appearance of all animals and monsters
-Based on which kingdom the player is born i have descriptions of what their regional bonuses do
-I have a description of what every advantage/disadvantage does and does not

and so on... But i still haven't written HOW things happen

The design of the manual is not in fact 100% finished and until i finish it i'll simply keep writing without adding mechanics

After i have everything i need (or like 75% of it) on the manual (which should be around july) i'll start adding mechanics

That is because i have vacations on july and my friends may find it easier to test and work on the mechanics with me.

There still is a ****ton of things to write, actually. I, for example, haven't listed any spells or magic tricks so far, all i know is that it's gonna be divided into light/dark magic

Now... About HELP, to be fair i don't really need that much help. Just tips mostly
What i needed was a system and now you helped me decide on one
Eventually i'll feel lost again and i hope to have the aid of the cool folks here

herzsprung
2018-04-15, 07:59 PM
Hi guys and gurls : )

So i'm back. Yay

I have decided to listen to the advice i read here saying that ONLY cats and humans would be boring/not popular

I said before i already had written all about the races and sub races; my sub races would be other animals who inhabit the world but only in very specific places, thus, not being playable. Crow-folk, insect-folk, llama-folk, lemur-folk

I am going to write and/or rewrite a lot more about them now, which is gonna be a little more work to do...

I also said i had no idea how magic works (yeah,ik :/). I have started listing the 3d&t spells i enjoy the most and dividing them in dark/light magic. So far so good, but i really don't have a strong reason WHY some animals are magical and not others.

Magic in my world would (at first) only be something humans would be able to control but, now that i expanded the races i must decide who can control magic or fire weapons and why

Would you guys have advices for me?
Thanks in advance

jqavins
2018-04-15, 08:36 PM
Well, I didn't weigh in on the "cats and humans only" issue before, because I didn't think I had anything useful to say. Now I would say that expanding it is unnecessary work. Here's why:

As a commercially published game, cats and humans only would be a very poor idea, because, as others have said, it would mostly appeal to cat fans, and not everybody is a cat fan. But you are not, at least for the time being, making a game for commercial publication. You are making a game for an academic project, and not even a project that consists of making a great game, but rather a project of making a game as a vehicle for studying gaming as a creative tool. For that purpose, the game doesn't have to have wide, commercial appeal; it only has to be pretty good, one that plenty of people are willing to try out. For this project, a game that applies mostly to cat fans but is playable by others is acceptable. Given you schedule, you need to be very careful not to bite off more than you can chew, and in my humble opinion you should stick with the "humans and cats" idea. For now. After graduation feel free to do anything you want with regard to expanding the game.

Incidentally, I gather that English is probably not your first language, so in offering some language advice I do not mean to talk down to you, and I hope you don't take it that way. The word "subspecies" refers to something more specific than the species alone. For example, if you have a cat-folk species, subspecies would be thinks like lion-folk, tiger-folk, cougar-folk, etc. Referring to things like crow-folk and so on as subspecies is incorrect. "Minor species" would be an appropriate term.

aimlessPolymath
2018-04-15, 08:36 PM
Magic in my world would (at first) only be something humans would be able to control but, now that i expanded the races i must decide who can control magic or fire weapons and why

There are a few considerations here:
-The metaphysics of your setting- stuff like where magic comes from and why people can use it. If there's nothing fundamental about humans that lets them use magic (like something special about their soul), then anyone should be able to use it, right? If a player really wants to be a catfolk mage, then maybe you should let them?
-Maybe not, actually- having both mage catfolk and mage humans basically goes against the premise of the setting.

Balancing these two factors- the legitimacy of the setting's premise vs. player agency- is something I don't have any real advice for, but hopefully organizing the issue in this way helps.

Note that this applies both to tech and magic!
Why did catfolk develop technology but humans did not?



So far so good, but i really don't have a strong reason WHY some animals are magical and not others.
In my experience, this isn't something that most people notice or care about- it's usually enough to know that they are or they aren't. If you really need an answer, I'd start with pinning down the metaphysics or rules of magic of your setting.

For example, if magic comes from gods or spirits (i.e. "divine magic"), then only animals who have strong gods or spirits that care about them would be able to use magic. You would have magical creatures of all kinds (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?543895-Arcanobiology-Magical-Beasts-Redeveloped), probably, since there's no particular attachment to an ecological niche.
If magic comes from a special chemical or mineral (i.e. "mutants"), then only animals who live in areas rich in that chemical, or that eat that kind of animal, would be able to use magic. You would have normal animals most of the time, but some regions with lots and lots of magical creatures.
If magic comes from an energy field of some kind (i.e. "arcane magic" or "the Force"), then some subset of creatures, spread evenly geographically, will be able to use magic. I would expect such a creature to use lots of energy to use its magic, and so have to eat a lot to make up for it. This kind of creature usually fills a predatory role in the food chain. This is the equivalent of typical D&D.
If magic comes from mental abilities (i.e. "psychic powers"), I wouldn't expect there to be any magical creatures at all, because they aren't very smart.

Unrelatedly, something that's been bugging me since the first post:

Humans have developed in a harsh desert
It bothers me that a complex society can form in a harsh desert- or even that humanoid creatures can develop in a desert. Humans are very poorly adapted to develop in deserts(sunstroke, dehydration, etc.), so it seems more likely that humans would have started somewhere else, and moved to the desert for some reason.

herzsprung
2018-04-15, 09:05 PM
lol, okay, i didn't know about the "sub species" thing, thanks : )

And about the desert, sorry i must admit i'm sometimes retarded. It's just that i have things very clear on my head and i forget to explain it properly to people. I'm not the best dungeon master...

Well, it's not really 100% desert. It's a gigantic continent and i drew a lot of inspiration from African kingdons, the middle eastern societies, Australian and brazilian tribes, and so on. But yeah, there are jungles and mountains and such.

cats are, well, small framed - picture puss in boots from shrek

humans are tough, strong and tall - picture Conan

This was the reason why humans could not use guns - coz it would look like a toy on their hands


Both humans and cats have 4 different ethnicities. Which are completly different from one another - THUS i had a lot of Major Races and some Minor races, which i thought was fine


But still, i'll keep this animal-folk thing in head for now, i kinda like it - I just won't hurry this that much and focus on everything else i still have to do

Knaight
2018-04-16, 09:51 PM
I have decided to listen to the advice i read here saying that ONLY cats and humans would be boring/not popular

I'd actually push back on this - even for a commercial product, niche can be a good thing. There's already a glut of broad systems made to fit a lot of different things, ranging from a fairly large number of generic systems to a much larger number of kitchen sink fantasy systems.

Meanwhile highly specific indie games often do pretty okay, because they appeal more strongly to their niche audience. Warbirds covers celebrity fighter pilots in an alt history Caribbean after the islands have been transported to the eye of a gas giant. That's not something which has a broad appeal, and it's also one of fairly few games that makes my physical products library, because that specific setting and its specific identity appeals to me personally (and also I was looking for good air combat mechanics).

Go with the niche product. It's more interesting to you, which helps it actually get done. Fewer people are likely to like it, but those that do may well like it more, and that's often more useful.

Lvl 2 Expert
2018-04-17, 10:58 AM
I think you might need to take a step back, out of the world of the game and into the actual game design. The big question you seem to be having a hard time answering is: "What are the design principles of this game?" In other words, what kind of game should it be?

I've seen you mention a few. You want it to be fast to learn, fast to setup, fast to play, yet with strategic depth in combat. It heavily features ranged ammunition using weapons and vehicles, so those rules will need to be solid as well. And you want a magic system. That's a start. Anything else? How about social interactions? Should there be any sort of hard morality in this system like the d&d alignments?

That's the point where you start learning about the known ways to do things and making choices. Go more freeform, like GURPS or Fate, and you can have the fast to learn, fast to setup and fast to play while the depth of all the mechanics will probably suffer a bit. A car is a car, there's no way to distinguish between say two models of sports cars, or to tune them. If you allow the game more time to setup you can do more complex gear and character options. If you let the speed of play drop a bit you can get more strategic depth in the moment. Those two can be combined, but they don't have to be. A game where every wizard knows the same 24 wildly different spells can be really fast to setup yet provide a lot of strategic depth for the magic users trying to find which one to use in every situation, a game where there is a spell list with hundreds of options, a wizard knows between three and five of them (less if they take more magic feats for a +1 to something) and they're all straightforward to use has high customization but is relatively fast to play.

See if you can write down in a few sentences what the game should be like for a player. My own project for instance (we're all working on an RPG, mostly really slowly) could be summarized as: Extreme/outdoor/racing sports adventure game. The game should follow the mindset of these sports, nerding about gear and preprations beforehand, no time to think while on the go. Simple, quick decisions during the race. The mechanics don't have to be realistic but it does need to trigger the right kind of reaction. If you can buy an upgrade for your snowboard I want you to be discussing that internally as if you're weighing off the stiffer versus the more flexible board in a real shop. Mechanics for other activities (fighting, sneaking, drinking) should be at least as simple as those for racing yet there has to be some way to have a character be good at other activities, in such a way that a character investing in non-racing skills is neither overpowered nor useless and still fun to play.

So, what's the focus of your game?

herzsprung
2018-04-18, 01:51 AM
The new century arrived with its engines and its smoke. Monarchies and empires have risen in the north, in a continent where the Cat-Folk are plenty. The revolution of machines marches towards the future. Everyday more and more factories and oilrigs are being built to constroy new automobiles, automatic guns, trains, and etc

The felines decided to sail the unknown seeking new lands and came back with fantastic tales of scorching deserts, leafy jungles, abundant gold and jewels, multicolored birds, strange and bizarre animals and, most impressive of all, indigenous peoples like nothing ever seen, creatures of almost 2 meters height capable of performing witchcraft and pacts with spirits

+ cool other things i have writen about the other animal races

+ 3d&t is a very easy system and even a chimp should understand it. I'm reseaching of how to use design to develop creativity and critical thinking through methods used by famous designers

+ i want a very free, sandbox kinda game where rules are not really so important. what is important is freedom and creativity

herzsprung
2018-04-18, 01:56 AM
A lot of you guys had a lot of questions about my project and, well, I was thinking about writing a list of questions about things you guys consider important to help me achieve my goal.

i'll keep you updated

herzsprung
2018-06-14, 07:08 PM
Guys and girls, hello again

So, next week i have a speech to give to a group of teachers who will grade my research.


I got a LOT of help asking questions around here. I also got a lot of hate, mostly from people who think i'm a complete moron.


So here is the thing, let me get this off my chest. I ****ING HATE university. I just wish i could demolish my campus.

Don't get me wrong, i learned a LOT there, but damn, i'm nearing the end of the course and i feel totally sad all the time.

To the guys who posted hate messages, whatever, keep posting it, i don't care. All i want is to get a degree in graphic and industrial design and work with what i trully love.

Games, illustrations, books.

The point of this message?

I Just want to thank the WONDERFUL people who are helping me. I don't really know any names but so far i'm very glad.


About my game? I'm loving making it. So far i have a lot of content. I'm just not very willing to share, idk.. All i know is that i'm giving my best to make a fantastic rpg game to make yall proud.