Greetings!
I've created this thread to receive suggestions from experienced and creative players for creating a concept for specific RPG system in a specific RP environment.
I am going to describe the environment in-depth so you understand what my goal is built around. (Also, english isn't my native language so there are going to be some grammatical errors, I do welcome all corrections to improve my grammar. I play Pathfinder, and have played few D&D sessions.)
The system isn't balanced as of yet, Iam building the core and the skeleton of it before adding more features and balancing everything out. The goal is to have the system aid roleplay, instead of controlling it fully, as it will be player-to-player interaction.
You can leave any amount of criticism or suggestions, as long as it helps me improve this!
TLDR : 3D chat platform used for RP,realistic living world with player-to-player interaction, making new optimized scripted system.
1. Introduction
The system is meant for 3D online virtual world (Second Life specifically, other known online virtual words are OSGrid, Playstation 3 home, IMVU, etc.), my friend and I plan to program it so it works properly in-world via a programming language similar to C.
Screenshot of how roleplay -looks- like there
People write their characters actions(similar to forum roleplay, but real time) taking about 1-8 minutes writing, the posts are usually 200-900 characters. Post size and speed depends on players.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The system can be easily scripted, but creating it to be easy to use for those new to RPG systems and interesting enough for character development on a long run is a challenge, along with striking a balance to lower the amount of combat skills and make other social and player interacting skills fun and easy to use.
The fun thing about it is, that there are one-to-several regions to roleplay in, with people joining daily and players being active somewhere in the region all the time (around 20 at once, up to 30 during peak time). So it isplayer to player interaction, rather than players and NPCs(GM). Deathis also very avoided, usually it results in character getting imprisoned, tortured, dropped off, NPC finding them to save them,turning into Undead, divine resurrection, and so on as I am still thinking of more solutions. People can play any alignment, and there is good old good versus evil.
The setting itself is trying to be highly realistic, with moderate fantasy: Wounds take time to heal,magical healing takes time out of combat, combat healing is minimal in existence. There is magic but it is less common, harder to learn and master, and strong. Combat is fast, trying to be realistic.
So, people are almost always out of combat rather than in-combat, in active breathing world. Politics, drama,problems, hanging out in taverns, making friends, creating items,trading, talking, having a good time, playing games. There is combat of course, but it is player toplayer, and that is where the main issue arises.
Combat is meant to enhance a story and develop it, and not encourage beating the crap out of other players because you're combat oriented and stronger.
The main issue is, the amount of Combat skills -needs- to stay low, making more use of skills out of combat than within it. Even throwing out feats, traits, or something third.
(Example of one system done wrongwithin the virtual world: It had 12/36 “skills” related tocombat. Everyone focused on 6 combat "skills" and 0 other ones. I want to avoid that.)
2. The System:
There will be couple of admins (Gms) who will make events and actually RP out a few NPCs, or who will go around town and interact with PCs for events and storylines like in any classic tabletop rpg game. But 80% of the time it will be player-to-player interaction.
Currently the system is inspired by D&D, Pathfinder Society, and Fate.
The Dices I am thinking of using are: 2d6 for rolls, d6 for damage. Or d10 for rolls, d6 for damage.Bonuses would be from feats, traits, or modifiers. I am thinking of merging traits/feats or something.
Attributes: Strength, Dexterity,Constitution, Intellect, Wisdom
Removed Charisma, as players can make appearance themselves and describe it, they can interact normally like people do without forcing views by rolls if someone is acting dumb but rolls max. Thus Diplomacy, Bluff, and other social skills are mostly removed. I might keep Contacts, as a way to receive NPC info. What is your opinion on this in such roleplay format?
Point Buy: 10-15. Still working on the core, so going to do in-depth once I have good skeleton.
Classes: Going to let people create their own. If they choose a specific skillset I am considering giving a small bonus to encourage it (someone getting athletics,disable device, stealth, pickpocket, knowledge local). There need to be some limitations to keep this in balance, I havent checked how crazy some people go with this and abuse it, so do you have any insight on it?
Races: Human, Halfling,Dwarf, Elf, Orc,Demon, Drow, Thiefling. Could add/remove some, and no I'm so not letting any Drizzts near.
Spells & Abilities: Guided by Pathfinder and D&D, but written by players and approved by Gms. Since it is realistic roleplay, some spells will be much higher level than the others.
Experience: Now, a problem that needs to be tackled. There are no Gms around players all the time, so players should be able to 'credit' each other for good roleplay. Some players dont have as much as free time as others, so some people will be playing about 4 hours three times in a week, while someone with time might play 6 hours each day.
My current idea is to have nine or ten levels, with max level being achieved in 2 years of active roleplay with calculation of 4 times per 7 days, few hours per day.Since there could about 50-400 characters involved with 8-40 active players daily, there will be people who stick around, take a break and then come back, so it will probably take longer. And I dont really want max level characters in such environment so it is meant to be just out of reach, with some people sitting on one level under.
I want people to focus more on roleplay, than levels and XP.
For gaining experience I thought about letting players 'Credit XP' each other for good roleplay, youcan receive up to 3 XP credits per day (need to be 1h separate each from other). And you can grant 3 XP credits (each has to be to different character)
365 days x 2(years) x 3exp per day=2190 XP to reach top level?
Continued on experience, if a DM wants to hold an event or a adventure, they would get 3 or4 XP for each day they hold the event/adventure actively. And participants in event/adventure would get +1XP (it caps to 3 per day).
Levels: Either leveling like in D&D/Pathfinder with adjusted numbers, or coming up with something else where you get -something else- instead of feats.
Skills: Skills would be to compare actions between two PCs, NPCs if GM is active, and environment. Could let people pick their own Class skills and granting them bonuses for it.
Skill list: Acrobatics, Craft(),Disable Device, Handle animal, Heal, Knowledge(), Open locks,Stealth, Perception, Spellcraft, Perform(), Proffesion(),Linguistics, Survival, Use Magic Device
Currently there are too many, I would try to merge few rogue ones into Infiltration, and maybe Perception into Investigate. The less skills there are, the easier is to players unfamiliar with tabletop RPGs to use.
About Traits & Feats: I don't want them all to be combat based, maybe having Combat Traits & Feats separate from normal ones that define character and keep them all simple. People should know how to calculate fast, without needing to stack tons and tons of stats, bonuses, and so on.
What I have so far looks a bit too much combat based, maybe merging combat traits and combat feats into one?
Combat Traits (pick 1 or 2?)
+1 vs (Race)
+1 vs (Evil/Good)
+1 with (Weapon)
+2 with (Skill)
+1 on Skill, make it Class Skill(?)
+2 Initiate
+1 if needed for Crit
+1 if fighting 2 or more.
+1 on attack of opportunity
+ Racial/Supernatural
Combat Feats: (pick 1 or 2?)
Arcane Armor
Arcane Strike
Armor Proficiency (Light/Medium/Heavy)
Blind Fight
Combat Casting
Improved Disarm
Dodge, Mobility
Iron Will
Mounted Combat
Metamagic feats
Power Attack
Quick Draw
Shield Proficiency
Skill Focus
Spell Focus
Spell Penetration
Stealthy
Toughness
Turn Undead, Control Undead
Two Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Defense
Weapon Finesse
Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization
Penetrating Strike
Racial/Supernatural
Etc.
Combat Feats might be too complicated for someone not familiar? Could replace it for case by case basis and approval instead of making it -this- complicated.
Normal Traits: (Pick 2) gonna write later
+2 on Skill
+1 on Skill, becomes Class skill
+1 reroll of (Skill) per day
+ Minor Noble, another trait for Noble
+ Reduced craft cost
+ Saving throw
+ Adopted (another race trait)
+1 to specific (material, or design)
+ Bonus starting gold
+ Bonus profit
+ Bloodline Race Traits
+1 Regional checks
+ Religion
Normal Feats: (Pick 2) gonna write later
+Craft (complex item)
+Profession bonus
+Uh need to think of more
- - - - - - - - - -
Need to think about on:
Armor Class, Metamagic, Fortitude,Will, and Reflex saving throws. Might remove to simplify: Base AttackBonus, CMB, CMD
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Economy & Wealth: Starting wealth + any trait bonuses. People would get money through roleplay, they could also loot each other and NPCs for any items they have on. Marketplace available, people can craft.
Lore: Core written by admins and GMs on a Wiki. Expanded by players constantly. Lorekeepers could write it ICly.
Factions: Led by PCs, would receive NPCs to manage.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Edit: Fixing bad pasting, some words have merged.
Comments, suggestions, criticism, questions, and other is all welcome!
I've created this thread to receive suggestions from experienced and creative players for creating a concept for specific RPG system in a specific RP environment.
I am going to describe the environment in-depth so you understand what my goal is built around. (Also, english isn't my native language so there are going to be some grammatical errors, I do welcome all corrections to improve my grammar. I play Pathfinder, and have played few D&D sessions.)
The system isn't balanced as of yet, Iam building the core and the skeleton of it before adding more features and balancing everything out. The goal is to have the system aid roleplay, instead of controlling it fully, as it will be player-to-player interaction.
You can leave any amount of criticism or suggestions, as long as it helps me improve this!
TLDR : 3D chat platform used for RP,realistic living world with player-to-player interaction, making new optimized scripted system.
1. Introduction
The system is meant for 3D online virtual world (Second Life specifically, other known online virtual words are OSGrid, Playstation 3 home, IMVU, etc.), my friend and I plan to program it so it works properly in-world via a programming language similar to C.
Screenshot of how roleplay -looks- like there
People write their characters actions(similar to forum roleplay, but real time) taking about 1-8 minutes writing, the posts are usually 200-900 characters. Post size and speed depends on players.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The system can be easily scripted, but creating it to be easy to use for those new to RPG systems and interesting enough for character development on a long run is a challenge, along with striking a balance to lower the amount of combat skills and make other social and player interacting skills fun and easy to use.
The fun thing about it is, that there are one-to-several regions to roleplay in, with people joining daily and players being active somewhere in the region all the time (around 20 at once, up to 30 during peak time). So it isplayer to player interaction, rather than players and NPCs(GM). Deathis also very avoided, usually it results in character getting imprisoned, tortured, dropped off, NPC finding them to save them,turning into Undead, divine resurrection, and so on as I am still thinking of more solutions. People can play any alignment, and there is good old good versus evil.
The setting itself is trying to be highly realistic, with moderate fantasy: Wounds take time to heal,magical healing takes time out of combat, combat healing is minimal in existence. There is magic but it is less common, harder to learn and master, and strong. Combat is fast, trying to be realistic.
So, people are almost always out of combat rather than in-combat, in active breathing world. Politics, drama,problems, hanging out in taverns, making friends, creating items,trading, talking, having a good time, playing games. There is combat of course, but it is player toplayer, and that is where the main issue arises.
Combat is meant to enhance a story and develop it, and not encourage beating the crap out of other players because you're combat oriented and stronger.
The main issue is, the amount of Combat skills -needs- to stay low, making more use of skills out of combat than within it. Even throwing out feats, traits, or something third.
(Example of one system done wrongwithin the virtual world: It had 12/36 “skills” related tocombat. Everyone focused on 6 combat "skills" and 0 other ones. I want to avoid that.)
2. The System:
There will be couple of admins (Gms) who will make events and actually RP out a few NPCs, or who will go around town and interact with PCs for events and storylines like in any classic tabletop rpg game. But 80% of the time it will be player-to-player interaction.
Currently the system is inspired by D&D, Pathfinder Society, and Fate.
The Dices I am thinking of using are: 2d6 for rolls, d6 for damage. Or d10 for rolls, d6 for damage.Bonuses would be from feats, traits, or modifiers. I am thinking of merging traits/feats or something.
Attributes: Strength, Dexterity,Constitution, Intellect, Wisdom
Removed Charisma, as players can make appearance themselves and describe it, they can interact normally like people do without forcing views by rolls if someone is acting dumb but rolls max. Thus Diplomacy, Bluff, and other social skills are mostly removed. I might keep Contacts, as a way to receive NPC info. What is your opinion on this in such roleplay format?
Point Buy: 10-15. Still working on the core, so going to do in-depth once I have good skeleton.
Classes: Going to let people create their own. If they choose a specific skillset I am considering giving a small bonus to encourage it (someone getting athletics,disable device, stealth, pickpocket, knowledge local). There need to be some limitations to keep this in balance, I havent checked how crazy some people go with this and abuse it, so do you have any insight on it?
Races: Human, Halfling,Dwarf, Elf, Orc,Demon, Drow, Thiefling. Could add/remove some, and no I'm so not letting any Drizzts near.
Spells & Abilities: Guided by Pathfinder and D&D, but written by players and approved by Gms. Since it is realistic roleplay, some spells will be much higher level than the others.
Experience: Now, a problem that needs to be tackled. There are no Gms around players all the time, so players should be able to 'credit' each other for good roleplay. Some players dont have as much as free time as others, so some people will be playing about 4 hours three times in a week, while someone with time might play 6 hours each day.
My current idea is to have nine or ten levels, with max level being achieved in 2 years of active roleplay with calculation of 4 times per 7 days, few hours per day.Since there could about 50-400 characters involved with 8-40 active players daily, there will be people who stick around, take a break and then come back, so it will probably take longer. And I dont really want max level characters in such environment so it is meant to be just out of reach, with some people sitting on one level under.
I want people to focus more on roleplay, than levels and XP.
For gaining experience I thought about letting players 'Credit XP' each other for good roleplay, youcan receive up to 3 XP credits per day (need to be 1h separate each from other). And you can grant 3 XP credits (each has to be to different character)
365 days x 2(years) x 3exp per day=2190 XP to reach top level?
Continued on experience, if a DM wants to hold an event or a adventure, they would get 3 or4 XP for each day they hold the event/adventure actively. And participants in event/adventure would get +1XP (it caps to 3 per day).
Levels: Either leveling like in D&D/Pathfinder with adjusted numbers, or coming up with something else where you get -something else- instead of feats.
Skills: Skills would be to compare actions between two PCs, NPCs if GM is active, and environment. Could let people pick their own Class skills and granting them bonuses for it.
Skill list: Acrobatics, Craft(),Disable Device, Handle animal, Heal, Knowledge(), Open locks,Stealth, Perception, Spellcraft, Perform(), Proffesion(),Linguistics, Survival, Use Magic Device
Currently there are too many, I would try to merge few rogue ones into Infiltration, and maybe Perception into Investigate. The less skills there are, the easier is to players unfamiliar with tabletop RPGs to use.
About Traits & Feats: I don't want them all to be combat based, maybe having Combat Traits & Feats separate from normal ones that define character and keep them all simple. People should know how to calculate fast, without needing to stack tons and tons of stats, bonuses, and so on.
What I have so far looks a bit too much combat based, maybe merging combat traits and combat feats into one?
Combat Traits (pick 1 or 2?)
+1 vs (Race)
+1 vs (Evil/Good)
+1 with (Weapon)
+2 with (Skill)
+1 on Skill, make it Class Skill(?)
+2 Initiate
+1 if needed for Crit
+1 if fighting 2 or more.
+1 on attack of opportunity
+ Racial/Supernatural
Combat Feats: (pick 1 or 2?)
Arcane Armor
Arcane Strike
Armor Proficiency (Light/Medium/Heavy)
Blind Fight
Combat Casting
Improved Disarm
Dodge, Mobility
Iron Will
Mounted Combat
Metamagic feats
Power Attack
Quick Draw
Shield Proficiency
Skill Focus
Spell Focus
Spell Penetration
Stealthy
Toughness
Turn Undead, Control Undead
Two Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Defense
Weapon Finesse
Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization
Penetrating Strike
Racial/Supernatural
Etc.
Combat Feats might be too complicated for someone not familiar? Could replace it for case by case basis and approval instead of making it -this- complicated.
Normal Traits: (Pick 2) gonna write later
+2 on Skill
+1 on Skill, becomes Class skill
+1 reroll of (Skill) per day
+ Minor Noble, another trait for Noble
+ Reduced craft cost
+ Saving throw
+ Adopted (another race trait)
+1 to specific (material, or design)
+ Bonus starting gold
+ Bonus profit
+ Bloodline Race Traits
+1 Regional checks
+ Religion
Normal Feats: (Pick 2) gonna write later
+Craft (complex item)
+Profession bonus
+Uh need to think of more
- - - - - - - - - -
Need to think about on:
Armor Class, Metamagic, Fortitude,Will, and Reflex saving throws. Might remove to simplify: Base AttackBonus, CMB, CMD
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Economy & Wealth: Starting wealth + any trait bonuses. People would get money through roleplay, they could also loot each other and NPCs for any items they have on. Marketplace available, people can craft.
Lore: Core written by admins and GMs on a Wiki. Expanded by players constantly. Lorekeepers could write it ICly.
Factions: Led by PCs, would receive NPCs to manage.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Edit: Fixing bad pasting, some words have merged.
Comments, suggestions, criticism, questions, and other is all welcome!
