Core requirements of a good party-based fantasy RPG

[Eltab]

Consistent math
My biggest complaint with 4e was that the monsters got +HP faster than I got +dmg as I levelled up through a campaign; my Striker Warlock turned into a marshmallow-thrower over time. Level-appropriate monsters at L1 should take as many rounds to defeat as the level-appropriate monsters take at L20.

Consistent math Mk II
A high roll is better, every time -or- a low roll is better, every time.
I once played a highly complicated spin-off of Battlewagon where you wanted to roll '1's sometimes and '20's sometimes, but I could not figure out in a four-hour convention slot which was when.

 

[Jd Smith1]

A high roll is better, every time -or- a low roll is better, every time.

So very true.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'll add two more:

Minimal flipping through rulebooks: If you can do something it should be either part of the basic rules or right there on your character sheet. This counts somewhere between double and ten times for NPCs because the DM needs so many of them.

This is why I'll never run anything 3.X or Pathfinder 1e based. If I need to stop to look up what a spell or a feat does rather than having it right there in the statblock I'd have to take my eye off the world, the action, and the players. I'll grumpily allow it for spells, but only under protest (and run few spellcaster NPCs for this reason). The same goes for a PC. And they should preferably not have to flip the page over on their character sheet - one page is good.

i have to say that not using the book in play is one of the reasons I value HERO above all other RPGs. Regardless of how simple or complex your character, regardless of what genre you’re running with it, 90%+ of what you need is in your character sheet.

Not that a HERO character sheet is small, of course. Instead of using abbreviations or other space saving techniques, I simply designed a character sheet in a spreadsheet to spell everything out so ANYONE looking at it could read it.

(OTOH, 3.5Ed is my favorite iteration of D&D, sooooo...)

 

[GMMichael]

Core requirements of a good party-based fantasy RPG (spitballing):

• Rules allow GM to say Yes over No.
• Minimal flipping through rulebooks (thanks @Neonchameleon).
• "Party-based" is a loaded term, but I'm guessing it implies multiple PCs with different specialties, so each PC should be able to use its specialty as often as the rest, with comparable glitz. So, no bards. /snark
• Action should keep everyone involved (thanks @RangerWickett). Or if you can't be involved, at least your agent negotiates into your contract that you get as much screen time as the other actors. Er, PCs.
• There are rewards for party-based behavior. This one seems like the ugly duckling. Besides the Marshal/Leader Aura from D&D's Miniatures Handbook, I can't think of a lot of examples of party-rewards in extant RPGs. A game could use party hit points instead of individual, or use classes that are inter-dependent (you cause the damage, you do the blocking, I'll do the healing). You see this latter item in MMOs, but D&D wandered away from that when wizards got more hit points and clerics, well, could do everything.

I was reading your part about on one players turn the other players check out. That got me thinking about having an action you could use on other players turns like a card that does cool things. . . Not sure if it will slow combat down or really thought about it more than just now.

It will almost certainly slow combat down, at least from an administrative perspective, that's part of the trade-off of potentially involving the rest of the table. Giving more people input will increase the time.

Using actions on other characters' turns doesn't slow down combat if you do it right. It gives players another reason to pay attention during other players' turns, and it adds to immersion since there's no waiting-for-my-turn during combat. There's no increase in player input if each player has a limited amount of input (actions) available in a round.
Example rules here (you'll have to play them to decide for yourself):

Extended Conflict Module | Modos RPG | Obsidian Portal

Rules Catalog 200 Action Activities of significance are counted in comparable segments of time called actions. Each action permits making one contest i

modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com

An idea I have is for a game that has the PF2-style four-tier successes: critical success, success, failure, and mishap. You'd get two actions per turn, but can only make one attack, so your other action would do something to influence the scene. I was trying to come up with a suite of, like, six common Poises - actions where you say, "I'm ready to do X if Y happens."

Avert would say, "If an enemy attacks an ally, I'll move a short distance, and if I'm adjacent to the original target, the attack will target me instead."

Bind would say, "If someone within my reach makes an attack, I'll grab their weapon and downgrade that attack by one step."

Commit would say, "I'm drawing back for a big swing next turn, and I'll get to upgrade my attack if nobody manages to damage me before then."

Defend would say, "I'll make an opportunity attack if someone moves past me."

Evade would say, "If someone makes a ranged attack at me, I'll move a short distance, and if I get to cover, the attack will be downgraded one step."

Influence the scene: great idea! But I would abstract the scene-actions a bit more, to keep them from looking like slower, more complicated regular actions:

Complicate terrain: break a container of slippery fluid on the floor. Tip over an apple cart...
Simplify terrain: push a table out of the way. Close a gate...
Raise stakes: take a hostage. Hold the contract over a fire...
Lower stakes: release hostages. Call for a truce...
Speed outcome: set the room on fire. Fight recklessly...
Delay outcome: go defensive. Pop smoke...

 

[Lanefan]

Consistent math Mk II
A high roll is better, every time -or- a low roll is better, every time.

Doesn't matter to me. We use roll-over and roll-under all the time, depending on what the roll is for.

Just tell me which dice to roll, I'll tell you the result, you tell me what it does.

As for what I'd want in a game:

Simple mechanics. I don't care if there's lots of different mechanics for different purposes (IMO this works better than trying to shoehorn everything into a 'unified system') as long as each of those mechanics is reasonably simple in itself, and-or I-as-player can leave the mechanical side of things to the DM.

Fast, simple character generation. Ideally, once I've done it a few times and got familiar with the system I should be able to bang out a character in 15 minutes tops.

Character generation, not character build. Bake in the class-based benefits (or equivalents) and do away with most if not all level-up choices, both for niche protection and to get away from the character-build sub-game. You're class x, which means you know what you're going to get when for benefits and power-ups.

Personality and characterization first, mechanics and power-ups second. Put another way, design the game such that levelling up is an occasional side effect of continued play rather than the ongoing reason for it. (at the extreme end of this line of thought a character would never level up at all; I don't go quite that far)

Flexibility of playstyle. Design the game neutrally, without thought as to how you expect it to be played; because if you have expectations as to how it'll be played you're going to design for that, be it intentionally or subconsciously. Instead, make it flexible enough to handle as many different playstyles as possible - grim'n'gritty, sandbox, railroad, epic, narrative, simulation-realist, exploratory, social, tactical, space-based, maritime-based, heroic, murderhobo, high-magic, low-magic, solo, big-table, etc. etc.; and where these goals conflict, take the average.

Make it open-ended. Don't put a 'cap' level on it; design it such that a table can start playing and keep going as long as it likes, be that 6 weeks or 6 months or 30 years. (this ties in a bit with what I said a few points up regarding slow level advancement; and with flexibility)

Remember the GM. Give the GM some useful advice on how to run any RPG, but also give some on how to run this particular RPG. Along with this, give the GM some useful advice on setting construction and-or worldbuilding.

Remember the GM, part II. Include a well-written sample adventure with the GM's guide, and reference this when giving advice on adventure design (e.g. Advice: in an underground adventure, remember to use verticality, three-dimensionality, and multiple vertical access points in your designs. This provides the adventurers with more choices and options as to how to explore the complex, and in what sequence. For an example, in Lost Fans of Minedelver notice there's four different ways to access level 3 from level 2 (three stairways and a ladder-shaft) while yet another stairway goes from level 2 straight to the surface, bypassing level 1.)