aspectuscape
First Post
Over the past 15 years (wow has it been that long) I have run “my game” and it has gone through many changes. At first it was nothing more than a basic rip of the Appendix of the Lord of the Rings. I used Middle Earth as a starting point and created my world Norland.
Then gaming grew to other areas of interest, space travel sci fi like Star Trek, and cosmic epic adventures of the gods the Immortals campaign. I even toyed with modern fantasy and horror with Dark Secrets. All the time taking ideas from this book, that TV series, this other Role Playing Game and that comic book.
I used my own rules, very basic usually modeled after some existing games (Marvel Super Heroes, and the Storyteller system of Vampire come to mind.) then some time a few years ago my friend introduced me to D&D 3rd edition and the D20 system. I was hesitant at first as I really did not like the previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons, the rules were confusing and unclear, and my games have always had the story, development of characters and role-playing be the center stage.
I was also considering using the GURPS system it was a universal system, which is what I wanted because my games could be fantasy one minute and sci fi the next. But it seemed the D20 system was better. Since then gaming has been okay but it has lost the feel it had once before, more and more ideas were bumped out of the game, out of laziness or because it did not suit the rules mechanics. I was responsible for the stories, and world/universe building where my rules expert and long-time gamer friend who introduced me to D20 would be concerned with the rules.
Well now I have found I don’t like the way things have turned out I plan the games a lot more worrying about making sure the creatures are correctly statted. Making sure everyone gets enough treasure and experience points, so people focus on there character sheets and not the personality or development of characters.
There are a variety of things I like about the system and things I don’t like.
Likes:
Higher rolls are better than lower
One die for success rolls (d20)
AC – Hit higher than Armour Class is good
Speed – To be able to easily figure out where you move in combat (we use miniatures)
The current attributes: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA
Method for figuring out Initiative
There may be more but that’s all I can think of right now
Dislikes:
Classes: I find a lot of Prestige Classes are neat but never used by any Players, as many of them don’t have as many books I do, and it’s hard to show all the Prestige Classes available. Also it can be hard to classify many character concepts within the standard D&D classes. We have added a few classes of our own to account for non-fantasy settings but there’s really still very few to really make cool sci fi or other types of characters. People do not really fall into classes; I would prefer a point-based system where one chooses his class features (basically)
Alignment: I like to use Aliens in many sci fi games and there cultures can be very different on moral values so it can be hard to declare what is good, evil, lawful etc. In general I would prefer not to use Alignment.
Magic system:
I talked to someone who said it was confusing with level spell caster versus level spell, I really don’t find it all that confusing but I can see how it might be, made me wonder how others might get confused. I was referred to the Everquest Mana system, which sounds closer to what I might want. I also like the idea of different kinds of magic (and therefore different spells) Candle Magic, Nazca Line Magic, Tattoo Magic, Temporal Magic etc. Currently magic and psionics are separate as is a natural force that we call Harmony which is basically like the Force of Star Wars I’d like all those forces to be different aspect of the same thing with more background although I’m not sure actually what I want, I want it to be diverse and allow for many possibilities.
Skills: They can be too broad based, Knowledge Religion just doesn't account
for everything when there are so many religions, and mythologies, and such,
as an example. I do not want a long list of skills but it seems specialities
aren't allowed or taken into consideration.
Experience & Treasure:
Ya have to make sure everyone has enough Treasure, and balance each character………Argh! Not every adventure ends up that way with treasure or combat and assigning non-combat experience isn’t clearly defined in the DMG.
The Planes:
Yes I know not apart of the rules, but I have been using the Great Wheel cosmology and the different D&D campaigns (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun etc) I don’t like the fact that if I want to add new planes they have to be demiplanes or a layer in an existing plane, wouldn’t want to mess up the nice arrangement of Outer Planes (based off of Alignment – See my Alignment gripe above)
There’s probably More But I can’t think of it right now
What I want…….
Point based system – to focus on character development rather than classes. Like the GURPS or Unisystem (Buffy or Witchcraft) system, Advantages and Disadvantages to make a character more detailed.
Universal System – Something that will allow for anything. D&D is centered on Fantasy that’s what the rules are made for. I want my system to be useable for any possible game including Epic Levels, and Deity campaigns (Yes I still run games where Players are gods)
Mystery to characters – By not having classes no one can make assumptions about the other characters without a little research, sure he’s casting spells, but what kind of spells what exactly is he…….Stuff like that…….Same with Monsters
Use of Licensed Worlds – Going to other realities like Buffy, Star Trek, DC Comics for example, with easy conversions to said worlds and other games. I would like to stop stealing the ideas and just do more crossovers. I like crossovers! I want easy conversions that won’t take up time.
Basically more time to design the world and universe and not so much work worrying if all this stacks with this and number crunching stuff…….
What’s your opinion?
Then gaming grew to other areas of interest, space travel sci fi like Star Trek, and cosmic epic adventures of the gods the Immortals campaign. I even toyed with modern fantasy and horror with Dark Secrets. All the time taking ideas from this book, that TV series, this other Role Playing Game and that comic book.
I used my own rules, very basic usually modeled after some existing games (Marvel Super Heroes, and the Storyteller system of Vampire come to mind.) then some time a few years ago my friend introduced me to D&D 3rd edition and the D20 system. I was hesitant at first as I really did not like the previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons, the rules were confusing and unclear, and my games have always had the story, development of characters and role-playing be the center stage.
I was also considering using the GURPS system it was a universal system, which is what I wanted because my games could be fantasy one minute and sci fi the next. But it seemed the D20 system was better. Since then gaming has been okay but it has lost the feel it had once before, more and more ideas were bumped out of the game, out of laziness or because it did not suit the rules mechanics. I was responsible for the stories, and world/universe building where my rules expert and long-time gamer friend who introduced me to D20 would be concerned with the rules.
Well now I have found I don’t like the way things have turned out I plan the games a lot more worrying about making sure the creatures are correctly statted. Making sure everyone gets enough treasure and experience points, so people focus on there character sheets and not the personality or development of characters.
There are a variety of things I like about the system and things I don’t like.
Likes:
Higher rolls are better than lower
One die for success rolls (d20)
AC – Hit higher than Armour Class is good
Speed – To be able to easily figure out where you move in combat (we use miniatures)
The current attributes: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA
Method for figuring out Initiative
There may be more but that’s all I can think of right now
Dislikes:
Classes: I find a lot of Prestige Classes are neat but never used by any Players, as many of them don’t have as many books I do, and it’s hard to show all the Prestige Classes available. Also it can be hard to classify many character concepts within the standard D&D classes. We have added a few classes of our own to account for non-fantasy settings but there’s really still very few to really make cool sci fi or other types of characters. People do not really fall into classes; I would prefer a point-based system where one chooses his class features (basically)
Alignment: I like to use Aliens in many sci fi games and there cultures can be very different on moral values so it can be hard to declare what is good, evil, lawful etc. In general I would prefer not to use Alignment.
Magic system:
I talked to someone who said it was confusing with level spell caster versus level spell, I really don’t find it all that confusing but I can see how it might be, made me wonder how others might get confused. I was referred to the Everquest Mana system, which sounds closer to what I might want. I also like the idea of different kinds of magic (and therefore different spells) Candle Magic, Nazca Line Magic, Tattoo Magic, Temporal Magic etc. Currently magic and psionics are separate as is a natural force that we call Harmony which is basically like the Force of Star Wars I’d like all those forces to be different aspect of the same thing with more background although I’m not sure actually what I want, I want it to be diverse and allow for many possibilities.
Skills: They can be too broad based, Knowledge Religion just doesn't account
for everything when there are so many religions, and mythologies, and such,
as an example. I do not want a long list of skills but it seems specialities
aren't allowed or taken into consideration.
Experience & Treasure:
Ya have to make sure everyone has enough Treasure, and balance each character………Argh! Not every adventure ends up that way with treasure or combat and assigning non-combat experience isn’t clearly defined in the DMG.
The Planes:
Yes I know not apart of the rules, but I have been using the Great Wheel cosmology and the different D&D campaigns (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun etc) I don’t like the fact that if I want to add new planes they have to be demiplanes or a layer in an existing plane, wouldn’t want to mess up the nice arrangement of Outer Planes (based off of Alignment – See my Alignment gripe above)
There’s probably More But I can’t think of it right now
What I want…….
Point based system – to focus on character development rather than classes. Like the GURPS or Unisystem (Buffy or Witchcraft) system, Advantages and Disadvantages to make a character more detailed.
Universal System – Something that will allow for anything. D&D is centered on Fantasy that’s what the rules are made for. I want my system to be useable for any possible game including Epic Levels, and Deity campaigns (Yes I still run games where Players are gods)
Mystery to characters – By not having classes no one can make assumptions about the other characters without a little research, sure he’s casting spells, but what kind of spells what exactly is he…….Stuff like that…….Same with Monsters
Use of Licensed Worlds – Going to other realities like Buffy, Star Trek, DC Comics for example, with easy conversions to said worlds and other games. I would like to stop stealing the ideas and just do more crossovers. I like crossovers! I want easy conversions that won’t take up time.
Basically more time to design the world and universe and not so much work worrying if all this stacks with this and number crunching stuff…….
What’s your opinion?
