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[10ebbor10]

So basically, I'm running into some system limitations for some of my games. So rather than doing stuff on my own and ending up with an even more complex system, I decided to look for community advice first.

I'll add what I have pretty soon, but this is what I need. A fairly simple system for a spaceship based suggestion game, capable of dealing with subsystem damage, goods storage and modification. Optionally, player characters too.



Other Gm's welcome too

[GreatWyrmGold]

Well, one thing that comes to mind is from an episode of The Simpsons...

"I want you to re-invent the wheel. No, de-invent it--no, reunvent the whool."

Remember that this enterprise was a failure.


There's no Game Police that will break down your door and confiscate your computer and dice if you borrow elements from established systems, so why not do so? Use whatever gamebooks you have lying around the house as a basis. If you've got GURPS sitting around, have skill rolls determines by rolling low on 3d6. If you've got 2nd-edition Shadowrun, have skills give you a number of dice to roll to hit a Target Number. If you have the D&D basic set, use the d20 system. They were simple enough to sell, they're simple enough for us.


But remember this: It's not the system that brings in players, it's the game. Don't sweat the small stuff; as long as the system isn't horribly broken, it's fine.

[Weirdsound]

There's no Game Police that will break down your door and confiscate your computer and dice if you borrow elements from established systems, so why not do so? Use whatever gamebooks you have lying around the house as a basis. If you've got GURPS sitting around, have skill rolls determines by rolling low on 3d6. If you've got 2nd-edition Shadowrun, have skills give you a number of dice to roll to hit a Target Number. If you have the D&D basic set, use the d20 system. They were simple enough to sell, they're simple enough for us.

I have to agree with this. I am currently dissecting the Pokemon Tabletop United system to work with a modern high fantasy setting.

[ExKirby]

There's no Game Police that will break down your door and confiscate your computer and dice if you borrow elements from established systems, so why not do so?

Shit, then who were the people who just broke down my door and confiscated my computer and dice?!

[Remuthra]

There's no Game Police that will break down your door and confiscate your computer and dice if you borrow elements from established systems, so why not do so?

Shit, then who were the people who just broke down my door and confiscated my computer and dice?!

They were the RPGA. One of your players died, and now they're coming after you.

[GreatWyrmGold]

There's no Game Police that will break down your door and confiscate your computer and dice if you borrow elements from established systems, so why not do so?

Shit, then who were the people who just broke down my door and confiscated my computer and dice?!

Burglars?

[Xantalos]

PTW

[Sensei]

I'm willing to bet you can figure this stuff out on your own. But if you want specific advice for a system:

-First off, keep it simple wherever possible. Something you're only using once doesn't have to be fair, balanced, or a system at all. You'd only REALLY need an elaborate system if you wanted to help someone else DM a game very similar to yours. But on the other hand, making systems is fun... just don't get carried away with a lot of numbers you don't want to track later.

That said, I mean, why not make a little system? That way you know how to resolve things that happens ahead of time, and everybody else is on board and knows what's at stake right?

So... you want to make a suggestion game which mostly involves what the players do with a space ship? Here's what I'd do, based on your suggestion:
-Make a list of parts in the ship, only including what players are going to change or see changed. Say, the hull, engines, weapons, sensors/comms, and whatever miscellaneous stuff.
-To have that stuff get damaged, either give it a hit point total or just say that it's OK/Damaged/Destroyed. Maybe only give the hull hit points. Damaged stuff doesn't work as well, destroyed stuff can't be used.
-For cargo, decided on a measurement (either weight or volume) and just say that your ship can hold X tons/cubic meters, and that each given cargo item takes up a certain amount of that. I would just do one or the other and not both, personally, to keep it simple.
-Modification should be easy! Just replace or change the parts on your ship, attached to the hull.

Beyond that, when you need a simple rolling system fast, base it around dice (best if you have one on your desk, any 6-sided dice will do), or use Roll To Dodge. You're probably familiar with roll to dodge, there's a subforum for it. Otherwise, you could say that characters roll a D6 with a bonus to do various actions. If it's a suggestion game, one character will probably be piloting the ship and doing everything, so have them choose a skill or two to have bonuses in- like, "Shooting, Piloting, Mechanics" or something. Pretty simple, aye? Expand as needed, don't expand where not needed.

[10ebbor10]

There's no Game Police that will break down your door and confiscate your computer and dice if you borrow elements from established systems, so why not do so? Use whatever gamebooks you have lying around the house as a basis. If you've got GURPS sitting around, have skill rolls determines by rolling low on 3d6. If you've got 2nd-edition Shadowrun, have skills give you a number of dice to roll to hit a Target Number. If you have the D&D basic set, use the d20 system. They were simple enough to sell, they're simple enough for us.

I have to agree with this. I am currently dissecting the Pokemon Tabletop United system to work with a modern high fantasy setting.

I have the rules for monopoly lying around, but that's it.

I'm willing to bet you can figure this stuff out on your own. But if you want specific advice for a system:

-First off, keep it simple wherever possible. Something you're only using once doesn't have to be fair, balanced, or a system at all. You'd only REALLY need an elaborate system if you wanted to help someone else DM a game very similar to yours. But on the other hand, making systems is fun... just don't get carried away with a lot of numbers you don't want to track later.

That said, I mean, why not make a little system? That way you know how to resolve things that happens ahead of time, and everybody else is on board and knows what's at stake right?

So... you want to make a suggestion game which mostly involves what the players do with a space ship? Here's what I'd do, based on your suggestion:
-Make a list of parts in the ship, only including what players are going to change or see changed. Say, the hull, engines, weapons, sensors/comms, and whatever miscellaneous stuff.
-To have that stuff get damaged, either give it a hit point total or just say that it's OK/Damaged/Destroyed. Maybe only give the hull hit points. Damaged stuff doesn't work as well, destroyed stuff can't be used.
-For cargo, decided on a measurement (either weight or volume) and just say that your ship can hold X tons/cubic meters, and that each given cargo item takes up a certain amount of that. I would just do one or the other and not both, personally, to keep it simple.
-Modification should be easy! Just replace or change the parts on your ship, attached to the hull.

Beyond that, when you need a simple rolling system fast, base it around dice (best if you have one on your desk, any 6-sided dice will do), or use Roll To Dodge. You're probably familiar with roll to dodge, there's a subforum for it. Otherwise, you could say that characters roll a D6 with a bonus to do various actions. If it's a suggestion game, one character will probably be piloting the ship and doing everything, so have them choose a skill or two to have bonuses in- like, "Shooting, Piloting, Mechanics" or something. Pretty simple, aye? Expand as needed, don't expand where not needed.

I got a suggestion game, but the system is rather broken. Trying to fix it up a bit.

[Funk]

if you get stuck and cant work out if what happens think of the two most likely out comes and flip a coin.

[GreatWyrmGold]

If you want to base it off of something, the 3.5 D&D SRD is available online and should include more than enough for a starting point.

[a1s]

If you want to base it off of something, the 3.5 D&D SRD is available online and should include more than enough for a starting point.

link.
This is good general advice, but while plain dnd is good at representing high-fantasy settings, it's actually not that good if you want a space/sea battle (or even just modern/spycraft, settings were you're expected not to charge a machine gun with you katana.)

[Sensei]

If you're trying to choose a method for picking suggestions, just pick what you like, is popular, and makes sense. There's no reason to have a system to it, trying to hold a vote will seriously bog things down and you can probably often do more than one suggestion at once anyway.

[GreatWyrmGold]

If you want to base it off of something, the 3.5 D&D SRD is available online and should include more than enough for a starting point.

link.
This is good general advice, but while plain dnd is good at representing high-fantasy settings, it's actually not that good if you want a space/sea battle (or even just modern/spycraft, settings were you're expected not to charge a machine gun with you katana.)

I didn't mean to copy it 100%, just use it as a basic system.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Porting a system to something it was never designed for is a quite hard thing to do. Better start from scratch. Or use simple systems that are made to be adoptable

Myself I tend to create overcomplex systems because it's fun to create a system... but then it's not fun to GM using it, because good system can't be done easily from the first try and players don't see under the hood anyway

If I made Salvation-like game, I would run combat by very few rolls, the way you do it (rolling every shot\dodge to that shot\armor penetration\damage from the hit, applying dozen of modifiers)  would get me mad real fast and those becomes more and more complex as game develops

Do ship based ( or even roll for all ships of one side of the combat at once)  rolls (modified by systems), not system based rolls. No need to roll four missiles and 4 railguns when you can just roll one attack roll oppose it to one defense roll of the enemy and go from that ( and I mean one, no separate hit, penetration, damage rolls)

Same goes for defense. Yes, you can avoid that missile in 3 ways - knock it out with turrets, dodge, or get saved by armor, and then roll for actual damage... But it's way easier to do one roll, either you get damaged heavily, or avoid the hit entirely, or something  in between

All you need to do is to find fun interpretation of the roll result

As for how to get that attack\defense score, just assign default  attack\defense score to ship systems, sum it up and use it as ship's value. Modify it, should you consider that situation is favorable for some system (Like enemy has slow firings weapon and you are nimble, or he uses low-caliber guns and you have heavy armor)