I'm talking about the old tabletop Role Playing here, not point and click. I want to get down into the numbers and logic of the whole thing.
With that out of the way, here we go:
I'm building a high magic system at the moment and am looking for input where ever I can get it. At the moment I've done a lot to make things as level as possible while still keeping the randomness of the die in play to keep things interesting.
Individual stats are calculated with an attribute*skill+2d10 calculation.
The reason for multiplying is to ensure that both attributes and skills are important, thus simply building attributes won't necessary make you a strong character.
The reason for using 2d10 is to create an actual average on which to build. The average is about eleven, but throwing 1d20 gives you the same chance of rolling a twenty as getting a one. I'll include a link with more info below.
As for character advancement; I hate the level system. I'm currently play testing what I do have thus far and my players seem to like spending their experience directly on skills and attributes more than working up to a certain number of experience points and being funneled in one direction or another.
This works more like the system set up by White Wolf for their World of Darkness series. You pay an amount of experience to boost something; two times the next level for skills, three times next for attributes, and x amount for advantages etc...
The fun part, or the one that's had me pulling out hair, is the combat system as it pertains to magic. I'm trying to work out how to balance a high magic system to stop players from just stomping all over people who decided to focus less on magical attacks. As of now if someone throws a fireball, for example, you can take control of it or dispel it with a contested willpower*magic check.
I'm still in the process of writing this whole thing, so any input would be great. I'm actually building my site to allow people to play this system online, thus making geeks even more anti-social :biggrin:.
The link, as promised:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~jamesstarlight/LinearVsNonLinear.html
With that out of the way, here we go:
I'm building a high magic system at the moment and am looking for input where ever I can get it. At the moment I've done a lot to make things as level as possible while still keeping the randomness of the die in play to keep things interesting.
Individual stats are calculated with an attribute*skill+2d10 calculation.
The reason for multiplying is to ensure that both attributes and skills are important, thus simply building attributes won't necessary make you a strong character.
The reason for using 2d10 is to create an actual average on which to build. The average is about eleven, but throwing 1d20 gives you the same chance of rolling a twenty as getting a one. I'll include a link with more info below.
As for character advancement; I hate the level system. I'm currently play testing what I do have thus far and my players seem to like spending their experience directly on skills and attributes more than working up to a certain number of experience points and being funneled in one direction or another.
This works more like the system set up by White Wolf for their World of Darkness series. You pay an amount of experience to boost something; two times the next level for skills, three times next for attributes, and x amount for advantages etc...
The fun part, or the one that's had me pulling out hair, is the combat system as it pertains to magic. I'm trying to work out how to balance a high magic system to stop players from just stomping all over people who decided to focus less on magical attacks. As of now if someone throws a fireball, for example, you can take control of it or dispel it with a contested willpower*magic check.
I'm still in the process of writing this whole thing, so any input would be great. I'm actually building my site to allow people to play this system online, thus making geeks even more anti-social :biggrin:.
The link, as promised:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~jamesstarlight/LinearVsNonLinear.html
