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This is a long going project, about two and a half years. I've been crafting a skill-based freeform magic system with no classes, and no levels. It is wonderful, but I need to see if other people like it. I don't want to give it all away, because I want to publish one day. Interested people speak!
That's more than a LITTLE vague.
So, how would this work? You'd have your traditional skills, like climb, swim, search, spot, ect. These, since the entire system is skill-based, should be worth twice as much, maybe even worth 3 times as much as they do in the d20 D&D system. All players should get the same points or so, possibly using the same 6-stat system as the traditional system, with stats giving more skill points in skills and stuff related to the stat. Then, there's weapon ranks, each rank applying to different weapons, effectively better than Bab, but more costly. Magic ranks would work on a 1 or 2 spell per 2 ranks or so basis? And then, more spells would be available after a few lower level spells. Stuff like Sneak Attack, Evasion, and other Class-related features, could either be bought with feats, or with 5 or so points.
Of course, this is just my take on how I think it might work. I really have no clue what yours is like, or what is best, since you haven't posted anything.
No levels Eh? Then how do player progress? Or do they just keep killing the same level of monsters all the time? Or maybe, at set amounts of experience, they get skill ranks, or even they earn skill ranks directly from combat?
Your post is pretty vauge though, I mean, what are we supposed to do? Comment on why this is a good idea, or what?
It's only very loosely based on D&D. We don't even use d20 anymore (3d6), we have 8 stats, and there are a lot more skills. It's a brand new system. No feats, and 'experience' and leveling is gained through the use of skills.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheLogman
You did exactly what you were supposed to do: Ask questions. That's all I wanted. I really don't know where to start with an explination of a full system in a post, as I'm kind of a scatterbrain.
Stats are devided into four catogies: Build (Including strength and fortitude, which is physical power and toughness), Grace (Agility and dexterity, a split between the full body and hands only things that require coordination), Mind (Intelligence and Wisdom. Wisdom is still perception, intelligence is the smarts.), and Charm (Presence and Appearance. Presence being the kind of feeling you give off, and appearance being the looks.)
Everything is a skill now, for one. Magic, combat, all the other stuff. The specific skill groups are: Weapon, Magic, Defense, Athletic, Perception, Interaction, Proffessional, Craft, Knowledge. There's quite a few skills in those groups, so I'll just go over the outline.
Weapon: Weapons skills, like Brawling, Swords, Blades, Maces, Throw, Crossbows. When you want to hit somebody with something other than magic, essentially. Mostly covered by the stats Dexterity and Strength for accuracy, and strength for damage (depending on the weapon type).
Magic: All the magic skills, which all can make spells out of specific mods with a skill trial. Spells are pretty modular, and thus won't be explained here. Covered by highest of Int, Wis, or Pre.
Defense: Resisting spells and dodging stuff. Also, Negate, a counterspell skill. All sorts of stats used here. Dodge is agility, Negate is Int.
Athletic: Climbing, swimming and the like. Based either of the Build stats.
Perception: Judging emotions, power levels. Being aware of things. Mostly wisdom, some Int.
Interaction: Different skills to do with interacting with people, like deceiving, seducing, and all that fun stuff. Charm stats.
Craft: Making things. Int.
Knowldge: Knowing things. Int.
Profession: Things that don't fit elsewhere. Lots of different stats for the skills in here.
My attention span is waning...
Okay, okay, sorry. Here we go, I hope.
Feats, leveling, and all that stuff is replaced with Ability Points, then side-effect of leveling a skill. You get 1 ability point every time you level a skill, and you level skills by doing enough of a relatively challenging task. This makes for slow progression in some skills, and fast in others, but there are ways around that (that'll be for later).
Ability points can be used to buy all sorts of things, like Vitality, Energy (Like HP and Mana, but Vitality is not actual injury. Wound points stay fairly the same and are real injury. This will become more coherent when I'm not running on so little sleep and so much work). More stuff costs more points, in progression and such. Far to sleepy. Will say more later.
So, it's GURPS?
I kid, I kid. Sounds interesting, though.
sounds like a tweaked white wolf system.
or combined D&D and WW.
I like the WW system better but love the D&D world.
Still sounds good.
No, this is pretty much GURPS Lite (minus any advantages).Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeejimbo
Except HT has been replaced by some sort of charisma stat.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Knotts
Really never played GURPS, so any similarity is coincidental.
It has a fairly solid trait system for character creation, as well as a resource of traits for making monsters.
Main features, besides the lack of levels and classes include freeform magic and the ability to make your own combat techniques. A lot of little things need to be worked out still, and the rules need to be compiled into a readable form, but it's almost complete. I've been running games with it for about 8 months now, and it works wonderfully.
Well, GURPS doesn't have a freeform magic system. Except in GURPS Mage, and the Mage magic system is pretty cool.
In charecters they point out that Magic (4e) is where most of the magic rules are. and it is very free form.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeejimbo
I say. This seems to have similarities with the system I am currently developing, although it is based on FUDGE
We will keep an eye on your progress mr. Deesix... (bookmarking)
Really? Admittedly, I have but browsed through a friend's copy of 4th edition Magic, but it wasn't nearly as free-form as the magic from Mage. I guess I consider the fact that in Mage there aren't "spells" per se, as more free-form.Quote:
Originally Posted by jindra34
Thats true about the base system but they have six(?) others in the book.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeejimbo
Ah, that would explain it. I didn't look at any of those then, and with GURPS Thaumatology coming up, it adds even more options.
So, it is GURPS. :smalltongue:
Yes it is. Specially when combined with Powers.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeejimbo
This system reminds me of Oblivion and runescape, leveling skills makes the character more advanced
My progress is a lot more than I have down on here, I just have no idea what I can write. I'm kind of paranoid, as I've had systems nabbed before. Plus, I'm really the ultimate ADD.
Freeform magic is a fairly solid thing we got, though. We're currently trying to work out a guideline for out-of-combat magic, utility kind of stuff. Combat is almost completely down. It's a skill trial, with different things you want to do adding different modifiers. You can make a spell, for example, that throws a person a few meters back and deals them damage. Different magics get a negative to the Trial Target of certain effects, making them easier to cast. Fire, for example, is good with Damage and Area effects, while a little less solid with healing effects, and really sucks when combined with Water or Ice magic. Oh, yeah! You can make multiple spell parts to make a more powerful spell managable. Like making a spell for the damage, and the spell for the pushing back effects, allowing you to add more of each of those. It's really fun; I have players who have spent hours of their own time having fun crafting spells.
i like the concept for this,
Good to hear. Do you have any specific questions? If I have something to go on, I can write more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kiren
I'd like to take a moment to make a very rational and calm comment.
GEIV ITS TO MEEE!
That is about how much my mind wants this system. How is carrying weight and capacity covered?
Generally, unless it is important, we don't cover that kind of thing. No one pays attention to carrying capacity. But we do have a ruling, based on a base kilogram amount with a bonus based on the strength stat. Oh!Quote:
Originally Posted by Machete
That's another thing. Most stats are single-digit numbers. Instead of making 10 the 0-mark, 0 is. Negative numbers are allowed. Simply add the stat as a modifier. So, a strength of 3 is +3. Stats can also be reliably raised over time at a much more frequent amount. 5 is pretty much the highest a starting character will have, while 0 is probably the lowest (you can get lower, but that's traits).
Interesting system. When are you planning to publish? And in what format (i.e. books or pdfs or both)? Will there be OGL content? What genre is the system built for or is it highly adaptable for both fantasy and cyberpunk type games? Do you have various playable races? Is creating magic items a craft or magic skill? I assume creating magic items only costs money since experience does not exist as such. And finally, is their any restriction on having too many options (such as equal level combat, magic, sneaky, etc. skills) or is that just balanced by good old "I do everything, but half as good as you"?
Sorry, I lied, one more question: do some skills cost a different amount of points to increase, or are all skills the same cost (i.e. Blade cost 2 points to get level 1 while diplomacy costs 1 point)?
We actually haven't gotten any solid release plans yet. We're experimenting with a few plans, both book, online, and PDF. We were considering releasing the base system for free and charging for setting and such, or the reverse. Not sure yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Tataraus
Also, the system is made for every Genre with only a few slight tweaks. So far, one's we've experimented with: Steampunk, High Fantasy, Modern Horror, and underwater.
For the fantasy we have various playable races. Races are made with racial triats and limitations on stats. (Essentially, a stat group must be primary, secondary, or tertiary. Two will always be tertiary. A race might require a specific stat group to be primary or secondary, and have another be unable to be.)
Creating magic items has a money cost and another very insidious cost, making magic items very rare. You must "invest" energy, essentially reducing your Energy maximum by a certain amount based on the spell in the item until you choose to make the item non-magical. When you make it non-magical, you can regain the energy normally.
It's essentially the I do Everything Half as good, but the game is really balanced for a character who is 50/50 between martial skill and magical skill. You CAN play other splits, and do well enough, but 50/50 is considered the most powerful build.
Skills cost pretty much the same to buy at gamestart and level. But certain abilities and traits cost different when applied to different groups (The magic group is far more expensive than the knowledge group, for example.) I also renamed a lot of skills to avoid any chance of Wizard's thinking I stole their game and morphed it.
Oh, yeah. Steampunk has a pretty viable Airship combat thing going. It's quite nifty and fun, though I haven't tested that one completely yet.
We also brought back the noble status effect. Pacify (no attacking), Fury (no defending), Seal (no spells), Bound (no movement), Paralyze (short-term no actions at all), Frenzy (extra actions every turn, no defense), Cocoon (impedes all skills, but heals afterwards), Poison (different deadliness and speed), and a couple other things. Most done with magic.
That reminds me! We have a decent alchemy system that ends up rocking the world. It's like weak magic that doesn't cost Energy.
Edit: More content!
Please, more questions! Comments! Insults! Compliments! Candy!
That sounds pretty cool. Is there any way I could get the complete rules?
Giving out the complete rules scares me. I don't want the game stolen. I am, however, looking for playtesters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rigel Cyrosea
Nobody has questions? Okay. I'll check back once in a while, but I'm done posting unless someone wants specific information.