Designed my own game - Looking for feedback

[sorites]

I've been working on designing my own RPG for a while now. It's not done but I'm trying to get feedback on it.

You can check it out here (PDF):
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&...jMtNDNhMC00Y2YxLWI5ZWYtNzRhNjM3NzE3N2E4&hl=en

The goal of this game is to provide a fantasy RPG to people who like d20 but are finding it's not a good fit for them. I want the game to look and feel like a d20 game, but with a few distinct differences. I want to give the GM the ability to improvise and create NPCs on the fly (even powerful ones) without needing to break or bend the rules. For the player, I want to offer a lot of character options, but I don't want them to be constrained by classes. Yet, I think class concepts are helpful to players, so they remain in this game as archetypes.

Please, I'm looking for any feedback at all.

* Does this look fun to you?
* Is there anything you dislike/hate about it?

Thanks!

 

[garrowolf]

I've been working on my own system for a few years. You might want to check it out as it has some of the same goals as yours.

Nexus D20 - Nexus D20 Wiki

One thing I would suggest is to simplify the XP for character creation systems. If all of your numbers are in the hundreds then why not divide by 100 or 50. It simplifies things.

For alignment you might want to use the Rifts system instead. However keep in mind that an alignment system goes against the concept of an open system. It isn't really needed. You might want to keep it for NPCs but not use it with PCs.

I like the helpful/Neutral/Harmful distinctions for DC.

Looks like a good start.

 

[the Jester]

Okay, at a glance I see two dealbreakers for me:

1. Point Buy (I hate it with a passion and will probably always run games where character generation uses dice)

2. Option Overload (pages and pages of stuff to go through to build my character? ...prolly not for me.)

 

[sorites]

Thanks for the responses.

I took a look at your Wiki, garrowolf. Very nice. It's always nice to meet someone who shares your drive for creating the perfect game.

I hear what you're saying about XP, and your thoughts have been echoed by a couple others I've shown my game to. I'll have to seriously consider this idea because you're right, it would simplify things.

As for your dealbreakers, the Jester, I'm sympathetic to one of your points, but not the other. In our d20 games in the past, we have always rolled stats. We love it. Even though point buy is often considered "better" we don't care. I will probably need to include rules for rolling stats in this game before I finish it.

As for your other comment, I have to say I disagree with you (but thanks for sharing your opinion). One of the goals with this game is to provide a d20-like play experience. For that, I feel the game needs to offer a lot of character options. The archetypes section is meant to help you wade through those options and point you down a path to building the kind of character you want to play, though. So hopefully players don't find it difficult to determine which abilities they want and which ones they don't.

 

[Summer-Knight925]

I'd have to agree with the Jester, the point buy system is not my favorite, at least for this style of game.

While I DO like the backgrounds, I think it is something the player could come up with on their own, something they don't really need on paper, the 'not needing classes' route can (and will) make it that much more complex, this does not seem like something I would want to start people who have never played any table-top on, maybe the complexity is good?

Also, alignment, but just the concept of Good & Evil I see as unrealistic, perhaps just Law & Chaos since, well Hitler thought we was doing something good when it was obviously evil...point I'm trying to make is alignment is always something I have trouble with.

Just character creation spelled that 'this is not my cup of tea'
not that it is bad, just not what I would want.

I see character creation turning into such a min/max system that when your character dies you walk out of the room with game rage, again, not my thing.

But while I have been trashing it, I do enjoy the backgrounds, the raes are simple yet still have flavor and the archetypes do give you a lot of options, while I would agree the amount of options could be an option overload, I think it is somewhat how it is organized, if you had skill trees (or webs, webs work good) then it would make it easier to go through.

All together, a good idea, maybe a little bit of organization required, but Palladium never really cared about that

 

[the Jester]

As for your other comment, I have to say I disagree with you (but thanks for sharing your opinion). One of the goals with this game is to provide a d20-like play experience. For that, I feel the game needs to offer a lot of character options. The archetypes section is meant to help you wade through those options and point you down a path to building the kind of character you want to play, though. So hopefully players don't find it difficult to determine which abilities they want and which ones they don't.

Yeah, it's definitely a matter of playstyle preference. When I sat down to think about my "perfect D&D (for me)", one of the design goals was "character creation is quick and easy". However, I think I've made it a bit too much so; it's too easy for certain starting characters to feel all-the-same, which is the flip side of the option overload coin.

Anyway, the archetype section is a good way to offer tons of options but also provide quick packages. It's a good middle ground. The problem for me is that I'd still want to read through all my options.