I've been planning on game mastering a story in a certain science-fiction setting for quite some time. (I won't mention the name of the setting itself, because I don't like to litter my texts with (C), (R) and (TM) signs and also have no interest in having my snail-mail box filled with love letters from other company's lawyers. But for this and the following posts, the setting's name really does not matter.) I looked around for RPG books and rulesets for that particular universe, but found nothing that satisfied me. So I finally, after giving it much thought, decided to create my own set of rules. Blogging about its development gives me also a lot of reasons to discuss shortcomings or ideosyncrasies of other systems, as already did earlier. The first post in this series will present the first basic concepts I wish to incorporate.
Concept #1: The Dice
Ok, let's start with something really basic: No system without dices. :-) My own will use the D20, not for conservative or traditional reasons (although that would sound great), but because 20 sides, i.e. steps of 5% propability, is something that is fine-grained enough while humans still can grasp it. What difference does it make if one scores 53 or 57 on a D100? Normally, none. So people will mostly settle with intervals of 10%. I've never encountered a GM who thought of 63% as the margin for some check. However, only using D10 will leave the impression on most players that there are not enough possibilities, so the D20 is the natural choice.
C#2: Rolling High
Beating a check will always mean to roll a number higher than the margin. The reason for this is that it will keep the system playable even with characters that bring a buckett full of bonuses with them. With systems that need the players to score low to beat a check, the session will eventually run short on failures. Funny as it sounds, eventually there will be a situation where one cannot fail except for fumbling. DSA's bowmen often face this "problem": Their values being naturally high after some time, a normal dice roll is made against a margin somewhere above 20. So either nearly every shot hits, or people begin to stack modifier after modifier: "I'll quick-draw, shoot the head without spending extra time to aim and ... uh, add another +10 for additional damage." Sounds ridiculous to me. However, when rolling high, additional bonuses will at the end level out, so that even high-level characters will have to care for each roll.
C#3: Active and passive attributes
Attributes are the basics of every character. Many values derive from them. What attributes a system chooses is not a question of some divine logic, but merely what the creators deem appropriate. It is important that the logic created throughout the system stays stringent and coherent. As such, I'll introduce three "attribute categories" with two in each of them. Every category -- though I'll not explicitly use this term -- will have an active and a passive attribute. Active attributes are used whenever a player deliberately wants to do something, e.g. use his strength to shove open a blocked door. Passive attributes are not only used for saves, but for things that happen unwittingly; for example, noticing something. The three categories with their attributes are:
- Strength (active) and constitution (passive),
- dexterity and agility, and
- intelligence and wisdom.
C#4: An attribute is its own bonuses
Something I discussed with a friend already is another concept of my system. Each attribute's value constitutes its bonus at the same time. There will be no maths or conversion tables. Why should there be, to begin with? It is natural to assume that an attribute shall have an influence on saves or skills. To not map them directly has only one reason: One wants to avoid high numbers. Balancing is not an issue, since experience point costs as well as skill checks against an opponent can be tweaked by modifing the sheer numbers instead of introducing yet another level of abstraction. I don't care that I'll have to introduce poinsons with a strength of 65 to keep things balanced out. It's just a number, after all. As long as the system stays consistent, it does not matter.
C#5: Attributes are their own saves
The passive attributes constitute the saves, period. Modifications (i.e., extremely tough races) will have a starter bonus on the attribute. The reasoning for that goes along the lines of the previous concept.
C#6: Attribute advancement will be limited
I plan to limit the number of extra points one can gain through sheer XP in regards of advancing attributes. The reason behind that is pretty simple: Attributes form the basics of a character, i.e., what his body and mind are. Except when growing, there are limits on how strong or intelligent one can become. So there will be a limit of three points extra after the character creation.
C#7: How skills and attributes relate in regards of XP costs
There is a certain, obvious motivation to increase attribute values: It is a +1 for every skill that is connected to it, and as such, very much convenient. The motiviation to advance in manners of skills is not so obvious; mostly because it is less expensive and has no limits. However, skill and attribute values will probably differ strongly during the first few sessions. Attributes will start with a naturally higher number than any skill, and as such, players might be tempted to invest huge amounts of XP into their attributes first. I'd like to differentiate here using the XP costs: Buying a new attribute point will be extremely expensive, that is, their costs will rise on a exponential scale. Skills, in contrast, will of course become expensive the higher the values get, but on a more linare scale.
C#8: Experience values needed for advancement do not need to be looked up
I've already suggested that there will be a system behind XP costs as well. Basically, the current value of a skill or attribute will form the basic for the "cost calculation" for the next value. Complex as it sounds, the maths will be pretty simple. For example, a new attribute value's cost will be old², while for a skill, its as easy as old *2. I'm not sure on the numbers, yet.
Ok, this is the first set of concepts. Next posts will cover the skill system as well as combat. I hope you enjoyed the post; please leave comments telling me what you think of it.
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