Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A design goal: making different races FEEL different.
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 5761405" data-attributes="member: 53980"><p>You might be interested in a recent OGL system named The Legacy of Heroes. It uses paradigm you described above.</p><p></p><p>You get to select new racial features as you level. It's done as a point buy, which I'm not entirely crazy about, but it does accomplish the goal of making an elf even more elven as he increases in level. Since the base racial features are also point buy, two members of the same race can be almost entirely distinct yet still distinctly of that race, which I think is a nice plus. There might be too many options among the racial features, but in all fairness too many is quite subjective, and inevitably better than too few.</p><p></p><p>Then there's class (which covers mostly the gamut of standard D&D classes), for which you get to select different builds (bard has the jester, skald, swashbuckler, etc.). The builds are quite distinctive, and seem like they'd influence play style significantly.</p><p></p><p>Finally, there's the character's heroic arc. You get this at level 1, and it's like a theme, giving you additional abilities and such. As you level you get more abilities. The cool thing here is that at certain levels you can either improve your heroic arc or take an entirely new arc (usually, you retain the abilities from your previous arc). Arcs range from pseudo multiclass options, to pseudo racial class options, and even cover lichdom, lycanthropy, and vampirism. There's even a bonus arc on the website that let's you play a brain in a jar, lol. I'd say it's the best treatment of a theme mechanic that I've encountered in any d20 system to date.</p><p></p><p>All in all, it's a pretty well thought out game with elements of both 3e and 4e, albeit distinct from either. I expect it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'd recommend it, even if you just use it to borrow ideas for your own system.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 5761405, member: 53980"] You might be interested in a recent OGL system named The Legacy of Heroes. It uses paradigm you described above. You get to select new racial features as you level. It's done as a point buy, which I'm not entirely crazy about, but it does accomplish the goal of making an elf even more elven as he increases in level. Since the base racial features are also point buy, two members of the same race can be almost entirely distinct yet still distinctly of that race, which I think is a nice plus. There might be too many options among the racial features, but in all fairness too many is quite subjective, and inevitably better than too few. Then there's class (which covers mostly the gamut of standard D&D classes), for which you get to select different builds (bard has the jester, skald, swashbuckler, etc.). The builds are quite distinctive, and seem like they'd influence play style significantly. Finally, there's the character's heroic arc. You get this at level 1, and it's like a theme, giving you additional abilities and such. As you level you get more abilities. The cool thing here is that at certain levels you can either improve your heroic arc or take an entirely new arc (usually, you retain the abilities from your previous arc). Arcs range from pseudo multiclass options, to pseudo racial class options, and even cover lichdom, lycanthropy, and vampirism. There's even a bonus arc on the website that let's you play a brain in a jar, lol. I'd say it's the best treatment of a theme mechanic that I've encountered in any d20 system to date. All in all, it's a pretty well thought out game with elements of both 3e and 4e, albeit distinct from either. I expect it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'd recommend it, even if you just use it to borrow ideas for your own system. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A design goal: making different races FEEL different.
Top