D&D General Fantasy heartbreaker mechanics…

[James Gasik]

There was an other old ad I was trying to find, but I can't remember the name of the game. I vaguely recall some guy in robes holding a sword or something, and part of the pitch was the game engine's ability to "slay the proverbial dragon with a single blow". Which at the time didn't strike me as all that incredible, since I had played Earthdawn, but despite having clear memories of the ad, after flipping through five issues of Dragon, I couldn't find it.

Curious if anyone else remembers this game, or if it was just a fever dream.

 

[DMZ2112]

It is very hard to not make basically elves. It happened to me. It can happen to anybody, and it will happen to you.

This is totally fair and last time I tried making a novel fantasy setting it did. James Cameron knows our pain, he managed to make elves and cat people at the same time.

If it is any consolation, the problem really isn't your lack of imagination, but that the collective subconscious has defined 'elf' far too broadly for anyone's good, with substantial aid and comfort from both Gygax and Tolkien.

The problem is absolutely James Cameron's lack of imagination, though.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Saw this on another thread, but death to 3-18 stats. However they're arrived at, just show the stat bonuses. That extra layer of complication doesn't do anything outside of nostalgia fuzzies.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Mechanics I've contemplated:

Separate "combat" from "non-combat" resources
Tie (some) actions to the weapons/tools you use
Create a "social combat" system
Improve the Skill Challenge system
Streamline and unify the underlying character stats so they better support multiclass/hybrid/etc.
Rich but easy-to-use weapon property rules
Improving 13A's Background mechanic to work out some of its weaker elements
Using "fudge dice" for stat rolls rather than regular d6 rolls

 

[Vaalingrade]

Saw this on another thread, but death to 3-18 stats. However they're arrived at, just show the stat bonuses. That extra layer of complication doesn't do anything outside of nostalgia fuzzies.

I've made good use of using STR/Con and Charisma scores being the basis for Martial and magical spell points respectively. Also using the idea of Con score being the basis for HP.

Just because people don't use the design space doesn't mean that isn't there.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Tie (some) actions to the weapons/tools you use

Ropes ended up with half a page of enabled actions and another half page of variants.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Ropes ended up with half a page of enabled actions and another half page of variants.

I was actually thinking stuff like what Guild Wars 2 does, where you have different fundamental actions based on whether you're wielding a greatsword, two regular swords, a staff, an axe and a torch, or whatever else.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I was actually thinking stuff like what Guild Wars 2 does, where you have different fundamental actions based on whether you're wielding a greatsword, two regular swords, a staff, an axe and a torch, or whatever else.

Did that too to an extent and from a couple of different directions. Maneuvers that require a weapon type and feats that let you use an item in interesting ways.

 

[James Gasik]

I've made good use of using STR/Con and Charisma scores being the basis for Martial and magical spell points respectively. Also using the idea of Con score being the basis for HP.

Just because people don't use the design space doesn't mean that isn't there.

Yeah, I know it's an extra layer of mechanics, but I miss when the ability scores did more. Bend bars/lift gates, open doors, determining how many spells a Wizard could have- there were reasons why a 15 could be better than 14.

Or we could add derived abilities, like say a Speed stat that's 1/2 Dex and 1/2 Con, I don't know. Seems like it would make ability scores viable again.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Yeah, I know it's an extra layer of mechanics, but I miss when the ability scores did more. Bend bars/lift gates, open doors, determining how many spells a Wizard could have- there were reasons why a 15 could be better than 14.

Or we could add derived abilities, like say a Speed stat that's 1/2 Dex and 1/2 Con, I don't know. Seems like it would make ability scores viable again.

13th Age has your defenses (AC, Physical Defense/PD, and Mental Defense/MD) determined by the middle of three stats. AC comes from Con, Dex, and Wis; PD/MD come from the three physical/three mental stats respectively. This means the best most characters can do is high AC (with, say, Wis and Dex as core stats) and good to high in one of the other two things (e.g., high Str would give good PD but leave MD weak.) It's not quite enough to preserve the "raw vs mods" stats, but it's something, and could potentially be worth looking at. E.g. if your middle stat is odd, round it up for the purposes of that defense? I dunno, this is spitballing.