A Glimpse into Modding
My Skyrim game will be starting soon, and the rules module for it is taking shape. Here's a look at what's involved in writing a mod.
The first step was to decide what makes Skyrim feel like Skyrim. So I picked out different elements in combat, looked at the way armor adds up to provide a total bonus, perks, how magic works, and more.
Then I had to look at the base Modos 2 game and ask: which elements differ enough to require new rules to support them? Which rules should be removed or changed?
This brought me to where I am now. I have a list of discussion points that I want to make on how to use the new rules, and a list of the new rules themselves. They'll take some refining, but the major points are in place. Next I'll flesh out the discussion, make the rules crispy-clear, and attempt to make a decent pdf out of it so I can post it on the Modos unofficial website.
Here's the rough discussion outline (apologies for the formatting):
[sblock]Intro
Player-characters
Level=square root of skill points
Suggested racial perks
Altmer, mana
Argonian, water breathing
Bosmer, poison resist 2, disease resist +4
Breton, -1 magic damage
Dunmer, d4 fire resistance
Imperial, d8 bonus septims
Khajiit, weapon training (natural)
Nord, d4 cold resistance
Orsimer, martial artist
Redguard, poison resist 2
Skills
New list
Gained from rolling, skill books, training, misc
Perks
List – example conversions, removed perks
Max damage perks
Tough
Endurance
Mana
(other perks)
Remove attribute point, skill point, rename Stubborn
Gear
Carrying capacity
Armor rule
Scrolls, skill books, potions, alchemy
Enchantment – enchanting tables – gear enchantments can raise above level limit
Shrines
Standing Stones
Magic
Spell durations
Magicka (and max magicka)
Magic resistance
Fire damage
Cold damage
Electrical damage
Ward spells last for 1 round
NPCs
Scaling
Sample NPCs
Conflict
Bartering (non-extended)
Picking pockets: 1st roll- were you detected, 2nd roll, were you successful (quality contest?)
Extended conflict
General
Initiative – weapon speeds (magic already has an action cost)
Lockpicking
d8 vs. Lock max progress (10 per lock level)
Persuading
Physical
Actions table (attack, defend, change posture, cast novice spell, drink potion, sheathe/draw weapon, use scroll, use staff, apply poison)
Power attacks: special move perk becomes rule, but the number adds Stamina damage
Power attack breaks a block: blocked power attack does stamina damage instead of health damage (on a Pro, the power attack broke through)
Sprinting and Climbing
Mental
Metaphysical
Guidance
Scaling – five degrees, two per Modos level. 1 modos level <> 4 Skyrim levels
Distributing skill points
Vendor stock and cash
Werewolves
Vampires[/sblock]
And the rules catalog that grew with it:[sblock]
| Rule | Name | Description and Dependencies |
| 100 | Encumbered | Characters cannot exceed walking speed when weight carried > 10 x P score |
| 100 | Locked Skills | (removed) |
| 100 | Level up | Gain damage pool perk, perk, and attribute point. First standard perk must be racial perk. |
| 100 | Skill up | Roll 20 for combat, 19-20 non-combat... |
| 100 | Level | Equals root of skill points |
| 200 | Sprinting & Climbing | Use stamina (d8) to measure progress and count toward a limit |
| 300 | Helmet modifier | A helmet that is one step better or worse than worn armor grants +1 or -1 to the protection roll. A helmet two steps away (or missing) changes the protection die by one type. Depends: scaling |
| 300 | Disabled | Only mostly dead. Stamina and magicka just result in Cons |
| 300 | Natural healing (regeneration) | Proceeds in steps: day, hour, 4 minutes, 1 minute, round, action |
| 300 | Poison damage | Poison damage ignores physical protection, causes vision penalty (-2), and does 1 extra point of damage for X rounds. |
| 300 | Critical strike | Roll d4 extra damage. Perks to increase. |
| 300 | Poison resistance | Poison resistance reduces the level of a poison, but not below 0. |
| 300 | Paralysis | Free non-action to resist, or X actions must be used as defenses |
| 300 | Disease | Non-action to resist AFTER COMBAT |
| 300 | Damage, elemental | Elemental damage ignores general physical protection |
| 300 | Stagger | Non-action to resist, or lose 1 action |
| 300 | Max damage | equals attribute score plus max damage perks |
| 400 | Magic Durations | day, hour, 4 min, min, round, action (immediate) |
| 400 | magic resistance | number indicates damage reduction or defense bonus (can reduce to zero) |
| 300 | Power attack | All character can use Special Move perk, but must spend amount on Stamina as well. Cannot exceed Stamina max damage. |
[/sblock]
20-ish rules is relatively lightweight (compared to about 80 rules in the base game). I'm hoping the full mod will hit about 10 pages. Until then, happy gaming!
