Would anyone be interested in a play by post Sci-Fi Horror RPG type game? You know, with the usual "People go explore a station that went off the grid" type vibe, and spooky stuff happens. I'm trying to improve my writing, as it's fine in short bursts but as I go into multiple paragraphs I feel the quality deteriorates. Besides asking for interest, I'm curious as to what system I should use. I don't want something TOO simplistic like just rolling a d6, so would a simple d20 plus certain skills and equipment suffice?
If you don't want to invest a lot of effort in making a system, that's probably the easiest way. Personally, I'm a fan of "can you or can't you" for writing-heavy things, since lots of dice rolls tend to get... weird. Flow-breaking, I guess. Obvious exception is combat, though if combat is really something you shouldn't be doing (common in Horror games, things are less scary if you can just wrench their face in,) it's also fine to make it more of a "every enemy is a puzzle" thing.
I had an idea:
Automatic Gladiator Sim (Better name pending)
Basically, players would create a gladiator or gladiators using their points. This includes stats, skills and equipment.
At the beginning of a tournament they volunteer a gladiator, when everyone's in I show the pairings and it's time to place bets. I then run these gladiators through a program that makes them throw dice at each other (by which I mean they fight) for guts and glory. Fights aren't to the death but... dice gods. There is prize money but only one gladiator can win the tournament.
After a tournament, new equipment becomes available, venues change, random events might occur, players may be approached by NPCs with business proposals/job applications/sponsorships.
I heartily endorse this event or product.
Let's talk about level up mechanics in forum RPGs.
First off, let's start with the extremes I want to avoid.
The Standard Level Up: unless we're playing with a full tabletop system in which players choose feats and roll for HP gain and a million other things every level, the "standard level up" is the type of thing you'd see in a video game like DQ or FF: gain EXP, get more stats/abilities (usually based on your Class or Race or Other Arbitrary Pre-chosen Ability Pack). I've been using this system or a variation of it for most games, and I'm beginning to wonder whether or not it's a good idea. Like... it takes away control from the player entirely.
The Build-your-own Level Up: This usually comes in one of two forms and is seen fairly often in modern tabletop RPG systems (GURPS comes to mind). Either there are no level ups and you either train skills of your choice or allocate points to them on the go or there are level ups and they let you do essentially the same thing but at specific intervals. I like this system to some extent, but it's very easy to screw up: allow players too much freedom in where they spend their Skill And/Or Ability Points and you can easily end up with an overpowerful, obsessively minmaxed character or a character that specializes in everything and partially defeats the point of each person in an adventure party playing a specific role (or something like that). It's good for some games and not for others is what I'm saying.
The reason I wrote this out is I want ideas for building a more interesting level up system. I want the slow gain of power to be an exciting opportunity for customization without being too overwhelming or too constricting. Some ideas...
Warrens AKA Loot-to-levels: No level ups, and stat/skill points are literal things that can be bought at a high price. Instead of letting EXP roll in as foes are defeated, players instead actively explore dungeon and give up sweet loot for longer-term, permanent boosts. I'm not sure how well it would work in an RPG, but it's definitely entertaining to me as a GM.
Persona AKA the Level Up Room: Obviously inspired by SMT: Persona series' Velvet Room. Players do not traditionally level up through combat. Instead, they participate in a complicated mini-game where they may periodically find themselves in a room with inhabitants that boost and augment them... but each inhabitant has their price.
Yeah, I got nothin'.
One that I've been pondering is a Battle of Wesnoth style thing, where leveling up actually changes your class, and you have options of what to change into. For example, you start as a Fighter, then when you level up you have the option to turn into a Knight or a Swordsman, then the Knight can turn into a Paladin or Commander and the Swordsman path leads to Blademaster or Hero, so on and so forth. Upside is that it gives the players some meaningful choices about character development while also constraining those choices to keep each player fulfilling a specific team role. Downside is that it means the GM has to make a lot of classes, and it's the kind of thing that would work better if the player knows the class progression from the beginning. I think it would work well in a narrative-heavy game, since class-change-as-improvement can closely follow character arcs.
I don't remember whether it was you or lawas that pitched the idea of having every levelup let the player add a word to his class to expand his abilities (so Fighter, then Sword Fighter, then Shadow Sword Fighter, etc.) I quite liked the idea, though it seems like it would work better for sillier games.
There's also the skill tree system, where players get XP points to spend towards various skills, unlocking new/improved abilities the more they invest. I was working on a skill tree for my ninja school RTD that's been chilling in my ideas box.
The other one I've been kicking around would be a variation on Loot-to-Levelup; basically, the idea is that characters don't actually level, they just get more stuff. Characters don't learn how to search better, or swing their swords in new and exciting ways, they just get items that can search better (magic detection rods, x-ray scanners) or more powerful equipment (sentient swords that increase accuracy, swords that catch on fire.) It dodges the "why didn't he use/foreshadow that ability before now?" question that gets begged in more serious games; or rather, the question that would be begged if the concept of leveling up wasn't so deeply ingrained in all of us.
Darn... That sucks, I was planning on using it for a pet project I've been slowly coming up with ideas for.
Well, if you want to use it, no one's stopping you (it's a cool system). I'd just recommend expanding it for more options if you want to do a really complex game. Here's an example:
Expanded Lawastooshort System: Every time the players level up, they get to choose ONE Passive Ability (stat boosts?) and ONE Active Ability (spells?). Each level, the palette of Active and Passive Abilities increases, and previously-chosen Abilities are replaced by options for upgraded forms on their next level up. The palette of abilities may stem from things like: the character's personality, the character's class, what types of actions they've taken the most often, what types of items they've used or searched for the most often and so on.
I've always liked the lawas system, and just because he uses it for comedic effect doesn't mean it can't be used for more serious endeavors. It's basically an ability-based skill tree.
Also, I'm heartily in favor of insanity-based levelups.
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Topic: Gaming Block (Game Discussion Thread) (Totally Not Roller's Block) (Read 415679 times)