Saagael
First Post
First, a preface:
My campaign suffers from two systemic issues that really irk me. 1) My players tend to get locked into what they can or can't do based on their trained skills and powers, and fail to think outside of the box. 2) Rituals get very little love, and so situations tend to devolve into combat or skill challenge. Both of which are boring for me after 21 levels of play. And if its boring for me to run, its definitely boring for them to play. Something is wrong.
When there is a challenge that requires some creativity and critical thinking, they flounder and become disinterested. I suggest maybe a ritual to help them out, I get "I don't do rituals", or worse, "I don't remember what rituals I have." To this end, I'm considering a secondary system that replaces Practices and Rituals. This is has three goals, some of which have been touched upon before by posters here:
1) Encourage creative thinking and teamwork to overcome challenges.
2) Empower all characters with ritual-like abilities.
3) Give players more room for flavorful choices.
Thus I present my Knacks feature. Exactly as they sound, they are things the characters can do, offered in a vague and non-limited form. Unlike rituals and Martial practices, they aren't specifically defined within the rules. For those familiar with it, they are a lot like the Strengths and Weaknesses concept in Mutants & Masterminds.
The basic premise is this: All players have a few Knacks at level 1. 2, maybe 3. These knacks encompass non-combat, non-bonus talents. For example, instead of the ritual "Linked Portal", the wizard might have the "use Portal" knack, allowing him to analyze, detect, create, close and alter portals. The warlord might have the "Command Troops" knack, allowing him to gather, train, and direct troops. The rogue might have "Forge Documents" as a knack.
Furthermore, knacks can replace not-taken feats. All of a sudden, "Linguist" becomes a knack that gives you 3 languages. Completely separate from feats.
Each Knack takes some reason to use: time, money, surges, focus objects, etc. just like rituals, but are more free-form, allowing for multiple uses. They can be used like "super-skills", in situations where intimidate and athletics don't really fit, and allow a player to choose how to proceed based on how they apply their knacks.
Perhaps the most interesting idea, is the idea that knacks can be gained both through levels (maybe every 5 or 6 levels), but also through teamwork. Perhaps after a few levels of watching the big scary dragonborn, the elf picks up on some interrogation tactics, getting the "interrogator" knack. Or the fighter, who's always letting the rogue check for traps, might learn a thing or two and develop a knack for Trapfinding.
This solves all of my problems. It gives everyone a way to use ritual-like abilities, adds flavor to characters, and empowers players to think outside the box with unique and variable resources. It also has another benefit; it gives the players a way to directly dictate their character in-game, without the use of pre-written powers: Player and DM have a short discussion about how a Knack might work, and after that its up to the player to determine how they want to apply it.
So what does EnWorld think? Is there room for this kind of system in 4e?
My campaign suffers from two systemic issues that really irk me. 1) My players tend to get locked into what they can or can't do based on their trained skills and powers, and fail to think outside of the box. 2) Rituals get very little love, and so situations tend to devolve into combat or skill challenge. Both of which are boring for me after 21 levels of play. And if its boring for me to run, its definitely boring for them to play. Something is wrong.
When there is a challenge that requires some creativity and critical thinking, they flounder and become disinterested. I suggest maybe a ritual to help them out, I get "I don't do rituals", or worse, "I don't remember what rituals I have." To this end, I'm considering a secondary system that replaces Practices and Rituals. This is has three goals, some of which have been touched upon before by posters here:
1) Encourage creative thinking and teamwork to overcome challenges.
2) Empower all characters with ritual-like abilities.
3) Give players more room for flavorful choices.
Thus I present my Knacks feature. Exactly as they sound, they are things the characters can do, offered in a vague and non-limited form. Unlike rituals and Martial practices, they aren't specifically defined within the rules. For those familiar with it, they are a lot like the Strengths and Weaknesses concept in Mutants & Masterminds.
The basic premise is this: All players have a few Knacks at level 1. 2, maybe 3. These knacks encompass non-combat, non-bonus talents. For example, instead of the ritual "Linked Portal", the wizard might have the "use Portal" knack, allowing him to analyze, detect, create, close and alter portals. The warlord might have the "Command Troops" knack, allowing him to gather, train, and direct troops. The rogue might have "Forge Documents" as a knack.
Furthermore, knacks can replace not-taken feats. All of a sudden, "Linguist" becomes a knack that gives you 3 languages. Completely separate from feats.
Each Knack takes some reason to use: time, money, surges, focus objects, etc. just like rituals, but are more free-form, allowing for multiple uses. They can be used like "super-skills", in situations where intimidate and athletics don't really fit, and allow a player to choose how to proceed based on how they apply their knacks.
Perhaps the most interesting idea, is the idea that knacks can be gained both through levels (maybe every 5 or 6 levels), but also through teamwork. Perhaps after a few levels of watching the big scary dragonborn, the elf picks up on some interrogation tactics, getting the "interrogator" knack. Or the fighter, who's always letting the rogue check for traps, might learn a thing or two and develop a knack for Trapfinding.
This solves all of my problems. It gives everyone a way to use ritual-like abilities, adds flavor to characters, and empowers players to think outside the box with unique and variable resources. It also has another benefit; it gives the players a way to directly dictate their character in-game, without the use of pre-written powers: Player and DM have a short discussion about how a Knack might work, and after that its up to the player to determine how they want to apply it.
So what does EnWorld think? Is there room for this kind of system in 4e?
