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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 4020093" data-attributes="member: 29398">Messings With the SystemBefore diving in here, a quick reply to Jack7's excellent post: I by-and-large like just about everything you've done except the removal of dice rolling.  It ain't D+D to me if there's no dice involved, and it's not a good game until I've used every dice in the bag. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Disclaimer: not all of what follows are entirely my own invention; some I had nothing to do with at all, but they represent in sum the system I and others play and run that we've recently come to call "Victoria Rules".  It's taken some 25+ years to get this far...oh, and long post warning! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />OK.  We start with 1e RAW, pre-anything except the core 3 books.Very early changes: - weapon speed taken out; too much work for too little result. Result: faster combat - weapon vs. armour type taken out; ditto - ExP-for-treasure abandoned; advancement was too fast for those who survived, and there quickly became too big a gap between the survivors and the 1st-level replacements.  Somewhat replaced with "dungeon bonus" (story award), a much smaller number given out at the end of each adventure.  Result: slower advancement (intentional)  (side note here: the advancement tables have been the subject of constant tweaking ever since, particularly at the high end, to speed 'em up a bit; but we're still *way* slower than true 1e, or 3e or 4e) - initiative system simplified to a straight d6, re-rolled for all combatants each round to better reflect the fluidity and randomness of real combat.  Result: slower combats than turn-based but more realistic, and does away with the idea of planning one's "move" based on when one's "turn" is, because you never know. - death point set to -10; chance to go unconscious if at 0 or below.  Result: fewer deaths (though there were/are still lots), and more spread between fully functional (+1 h.p.) and dead (-1 h.p.) than original 1e. - shields made to give 2 points of AC to differentiate from bucklers that gave 1.  Result: little functional change other than to make shields more useful. - class-level limits relaxed somewhat; this would start a still-ongoing process that today has most races able to fully function as most classes.  Result: more variety of characters. - Elven bonuses reduced considerably.  Result: no real change; there's still lots of Elves played.Next wave of changes: - roll-up method becomes 5d6 dropping the lowest two 6 times, rearrange to suit. Intent is to reflect that characters are a cut above the average commoner.  Result: as intended. - critical hits (double damage on 5-6/d6 after nat. 20) and fumbles (1/d6 after nat. 1) introduced; fumbles give results from DM's chart).  Tweaked several times since but the general idea remains intact.  Result: more chaotic combats (intentional) - Druids become Nature Clerics, and worship deities etc. just like regular Clerics; they can also now be any alignment.  Result: the class actually got played. - A new class - War Cleric - introduced as a sub-class of Cleric.  Their combat spells are enhanced (and the somatic component is often to charge into melee combat) but their curing is drastically worse.  Result: a wonderfully playable class at low levels that becomes a glass cannon higher up. - all races allowed to multiclass, to some extent; and 1e's Human 2-classing dropped.  Later, multiclass characters allowed to divide ExP more freely between classes, with limits.  Result: more multiclass characters for a while but not ridiculous, and now it has settled down to about the same average it was before. - a second type of hit points, called "body points", introduced...just like SW's wound points except 25 years earlier.  Body points are constant; most adventurers have between 2 and 5 of them, in addition to "fatigue points" which are the normal hit points rolled by class and level.  Body point damage is more difficult to cure and-or rest up from.  At the same time, anyone who had been below 0 h.p. and recovered was deemed to be "incurable" for a length of time determined by how far negative they'd gone; incurability needed rest to remove.  Result: much more realistic health issues, along with parties having to make some hard choices now and then "do we wait for Joe to rest another day to become curable, or do we press on and hope nothing hits him?"Next wave of changes: - Vancian spellcasting quasi-replaced with a spell point system; a caster rolls spell points each level just like hit points, except the size of dice rolled scales upward roughly commensurate with the points cost of each spell, and the average works out to close to what you'd be able to cast with slots.  Clerics become fully "wild card" - all pre-memorization disappears for them.  Wizards are messier: they still have to memorize their highest two levels of spells - as many as they like provided they've the points to spare - but are wild card on lower level spells and need only assign a wild card points block...e.g. a 7th-level MU has to memorize 3rd and 4th-level spells but is wild card on 1st and 2nd level spells.  The logic here is that by the time you're casting 4th level spells you're so familiar with the lower-level stuff you can cast it on a relative whim.  Result: Clerics became much easier to play, and thus more popular.  Points system worked well up to about 7th level, after which it started to break; collapsing at around 10th.  About to be changed again - see (way) below. - Half-Orcs and Half-Elves become Part-Orcs and Part-Elves, being 1/8 to 7/8 Human.  Result: longer tables for everything but more realism in genetics.Unearthed Arcana comes out (1985) - Barbarian immediately abandoned as a class but introduced as a magic-despising sub-race of Human.  Result: variably successful as something for the player who wants a challenge. (our games tend toward the high-magic end; a character refusing magic is something of a fish out of water...) - Cavalier-like %-ile stat increments introduced for all classes.  Result: many years later, when 3e introduced the idea of a free stat point every 4 levels, we figured we'd done the right thing. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> - Cavaliers get d10 hit dice instead of d12, and alignment restrictions eased.  Result: well, at least a *few* got played... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> - magic item instability introduced.  Rationale: if some magic items explode when broken (c.f. retributive strike), why not all?  Wild magic surges introduced later as another way of explaining what happens when magic energy gets released in ways it shouldn't be.  Result: rare but spectacular cascading meltdowns as high-magic parties become low-magic parties on the (very messy) spot, and a new awareness of the risks involved in carrying lots of magic. - combat rounds become 30 seconds instead of a minute.  Result: no functional change. - Bards redesigned as a "core" class.  Result: several redesigns later I'm still not 100% satisfied...I can't find the sweet spot between useless and completely broken. - Rangers alignment restriction disappears.  Rationale: why does someone with survival and tracking skills necessarily have to be Good?  Result: more freedom for me as DM to design opponents; more freedom for players to play combinations like Ranger-Thief or Ranger-Assassin.more recent changes (some based on 3e): - Monks redesigned from the ground up as a completely feat-based class.  Result: they're way more playable at low levels without being broken, and more are being played. - monsters gain strength bonuses to hit and damage where applicable, also gain some hit points.  Result: the game scales into slightly higher levels somewhat better. - Necromancer introduced as a sub-class of Magic-User (on par with Illusionist).  Result: jury is still out, though so far so good. - One Restoration spell gets you back at least into the level you started from (in cases of multiple level loss); it also gets you back some of what you've earned since.  Rationale: wihtout this, a drained character is wasting their time adventuring as any earned ExP will be wiped out by the Restoration.  Result: as intended.upcoming changes, yet to be fully playtested: - all spellcasters lose spell points and go back to a slot-based system, functioning much like 3e Sorcerers.  Pre-memorization is gone.  Most slots are automatic by level but a small random element remains, giving extra assignable slots now and then.  Results (hoped-for): some lesser-used spells will see the light of day. - psyonics, after 3 or 4 complete redesigns have failed, will be scrapped completely except as abilities inherent to a few iconic monsters e.g. mind flayers, major demons, etc. Results: less headaches for me as DM.There's lots and lots of minor changes as well, mostly to do with spells and some flavour stuff; but those are the major ones.Lane-"if you're still reading this you have my congratulations"-fan</blockquote>

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