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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Haltherrion" data-source="post: 5470414" data-attributes="member: 18253">Well... I'm not really sure where you are going with your system or your question but there seem to be some fundementally different approaches to advancement. On one path, more advanced characters don't have any more capacity to take damage then lower level characters. In this school of thought, bodies are bodies and wounds are wounds, but higher level PCs are more skillfull at inflicting damage and avoiding damage. This is a more lethal world where a well landed sword blow will kill a neophyte as well as a seasoned warrrior but a seasoned warrior has a better chance of avoing the blow. An analog might be the western gunfighter who played the angles (sun in the eyes of the foes, always get the drop on the foe, always use a superior firearm; but once a bullet hit the torso, a good gunfighter was just as dead as a greenhorn).  Then there's the school of thought where the higher level folks are just tougher by some measure and either can shrug off damage from low level folks or just take a lot more blows.  Both schools have their fictional counterparts and both can make for good games. D&D is certainly more the latter and D&D 4E is very much the latter. The latter system is more forgiving and probably more comfortable for players but isn't inherently superior to another system. They are just different ways to cast it. On the gritty, everyone is mortal scale, the game seems to favor more RP and less combat. On the "you can't touch me unless you are somewhat similarly geared and leveled" it's more forgiving in many ways. What works for you depends on your vision of a game sysyem and what your players are likely to enjoy. To turn to real game system examples. I always felt that at least the earlier systems of traveler (not personally familiar with d20 traveler) are more like the gritty, lethal, former system. D&D and most other fantasy and space opera games tend more to the latter end of the spectruum. I am more sympathetic to the former system but almost always play the latter systems. Why? Well, gritty and lethal means not alot of combat (becuase lethal == dead characters) which means a lot more work providing a game system where non-combat matters. D&D-ish systems always have the entertainment option of whacking on things for hours on end which is fun in its on way and certainly can still be blended with lots of RP and non-combat stuff. So far your game system, it really depends on more of what you want to run. Do you want a system that focuses more on RP and players and has infrequent combat or a system that is all combat or a system that is a bit of both. THe latter two points on the spectrum to me have more in common than the first point. I don't get a sense of what your design goals are from what you have described so far. Maybe you can share some more.</blockquote>

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