Hello, my name is Malckuss, and I design RPGs...

[Thought]

[Malckuss]

I think you might misunderstand what I am trying to build. I am building a fantasy mash up of my favorite fantasy game elements and trying to give it the OSR treatment. The class building tools would be to build fantasy classes. Same with the race building tools. In Spycraft, campaign qualities are ways to modify a spy game; this would be ways to modify fantasy games.

That being said, approaching the design in two stages sounds extremely worthwhile. I could build the main part of the game, then go back later and show how people could build their own stuff, which would be much easier after doing it myself.

[Thought]

Ah, so you meant genres of fantasy, not genres of RPG's? So, a system that could be used for High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, etc, but not so much Space Cowboys, right? Yeah, I had it misunderstood. It's still a bit loose for my own personal tastes, but as Onix said, "write and let write."

That said, I'd be really interested to see how you design a magic system framework that would allow for, say, the vancian variant of 3x D&D, the power system of 4e, the never-use system of Noblis, and the allomancy of Mistborn.

[Malckuss]

To be honest, Thought, I am probably going to drop the Vancian magic all together. I've never like it. I was thinking more along the lines of a point pool based system, a skill check system, a OSR-style free form system similar to Donjon, and perhaps a schtick based system similar to Feng Shui. I'm doing my research right now, digging into the kinds of systems I'm wanting to emulate. I do like Nobilis, but I'm not doing a diceless system, so it wouldn't work, though I could probably use some of the broader strokes.

My hope is for the game to inspire to people to use the game for their personal campaigns; some people want gritty games reminiscent of The Black Company, some people will want to slog right back into the Forgotten Realms with a loser set of rules, some will want to emulate Japanese console RPGs (the Final Fantasy series is one of my inspirations) with airships and floating castles. My goal is for the basic rules to be the same, but for options similar to the various Unearthed Arcana books for D&D to built into the core rule set instead of a latter release.

[misterecho]

welcome. I'm sure you'll find some very like minded friends here.

[Rob Lang]

Hey Malckuss, have you made any progress? Got anything to show? I think we'd all have a much better idea if we had a strong concept or a draft to peruse.

[Malckuss]

I apologize about not posting anything the last few days; I went to go visit some friends over the weekend. I am running a demo at a local convention in approximately 3 weeks, and we have been going over the system, materials and plot. I probably won't post anything until after the convention after this week; but it really depends on my schedule.

I have been working on my concept and tightening up some ideas while doing some research; I'll try to post about it either later this evening after I get settled in or at some point tomorrow.

EDIT: Just when I think it's time to write WotC off, they go and do something that makes so much sense, it is seemingly ridiculous someone hasn't thought of it before. In their seminar today, they talked about not only having your race give you a modifier to an ability score, but your class, as well, with the posibility of building synchronicity betwen the two or using one to shore up the other. "I get a +1 to Strength from being an Orc. Fighter gives you a +1 to Strength as well; or I could make a Bard and get a +1 to my Charisma and still be able to make an effective Bard."

[Malckuss]

I thought I would satisfy some curiosity and cite some information regarding my game. I have a questionnaire compiled from several conversations on several different boards that consists of 27 questions. Here goes.

1. Why am I making this RPG? What are my motivations in creating this particular game?
My initial reasoning was disgust with another game. That is a poor motivator. Instead, I've decided to take the aspects of several games I like, and place them in a simpler system adjusted in a way that is less restrictive and allows for more creative freedom. I am also seeking to add facets to this game I have in general only seen in videogames, such as speed factoring into your turn, and flavorful classes.

2.Who is the target audience?
Myself mostly. In fact, I feel no real urge to build this system with anyone else's tastes in mind. That being said, I think the game will appeal to those who want to have more authorship over their characters, and are or have become dissatisfied with the traditional level & class based approach to fantasy gaming.

3.What is the goal or purpose of my RPG?
The goal of my game would be a game that allows players to customize their characters to accomplish tasks in their preferred method to explore exotic and richly evocative locales; if the players are satisfied with their characters and are enjoying the exploratory game play. I will consider my game a success.

4. What makes my game "unique" or different? Why won't my target audience play something similar that already exists instead? Why would anyone want to play my RPG?
My classes are open and allow for customization; you can make use of any skill you want, and you can add armor and weapon skills as you wish. You can broaden your class by opening other classes up so you can purchase their class features. You can make your character what you want from the beginning, not having to wait until level 8 or so to get the class you want to be. You can increase your options and tactical choices in combat by purchasing a fighting style, or just use the base combat rules if you wan to keep things simple for yourself. By having the class sytem open and additive, anyone can use magic if they wish. The game has several innovative mechanics, along with some retro elements, all executed in a simple manner, to make the game easy to change by adding or subtracting elements as you see fit. Equipment is customizable, so that your gear selection is more a matter of personal taste and not simply choosing the weapon that does the most damage or armor that gives the best protection. I will have a system in place for determining the over all Power Level of a character and party to assist the GM in designing encounters, but characters will not have a level; by not having levels, character retirement is left up to the player, not capped artificially by the system. Unless your character dies; there is that.

The closest game to what I am trying to do is Anima: Beyond Fantasy. It has limited races, a bulky combat system, and the whole system is percentile based. I think I can incorporate the better ideas and eliminate the need for the more math intensive and overcomplicated elements (such as loosing your turn if you are struck in combat if you haven't taken a particular special action reserved for heavily armored warriors).

5. What am I trying to achieve within the game? (i.e. do I want the players to encounter moral conundrums or to focus on "gamist" play?)
I want the system to be robust enough for a player to be able to interact with their fellow gamers, the npcs and the environment without sitting there obsessing over how underpowered they feel, or wondering if they can buy some magical gewga that will make them more powerful. I want them wondering what lies within the forest outside of town, or what danger and treasures await in the ruins to the east. I do not want them feeling like the wizard can do everything their character can do, and do it better, or wondering why the system makes it so hard to perform their schtick that they like to do in other games. I want the game to be gamey enough that they don't feel the need to worry about it, and just enjoy the play experience.

I have other things I need to do around the house at the moment, and I feel I have given you some things to chew on, so I will leave it at that for now, and I will endeavor to return latter and fill out some more of the questionnaire.

[Rob Lang]

Hang on - I think I've just ballsed up and deleted the wrong post. So sorry, Malckuss. I'm a completed idiot. Please do repost 6... onwards and I promise I won't delete it again.

[Malckuss]

Bah. Grr. Argh.

Oh well. This stuff happens.

I went ahead and finished the questionnaire; feel free to peruse, reuse, or ignore it as you see fit.

6. How do I want the game session to look and/or feel?
Ideally, I would like the gm to make use of lighting, sounds & music, as well as images and vivid description to draw the players into the setting. I want the players to feel the thrill of the unknown, to feel like their characters are someplace ancient and abandoned. I want the spirit of adventure to pervade the game.

7. What kind of "power" should the GM have? What about the players? What kind of "power" does the system have?
The GM is the primary arbitrator, has control of content creation, management of the shared creative space, GM Fiat, and shares Group consensus with the players. Players are the primary resource managers, have primary authorship over their individual characters, can request arbitration or fiat from the GM, and share Group consensus with the GM and the other players. The rules are the primary guide and helps establish the shared creative space. The rules are also the most impartial arbitrator.

8. What can characters "do?" What is their purpose or role?
The characters are primarily adventurers, but their role can change drastically as they gain in power and wealth. Characters partake in quests, exploration, problem solving/hazard circumventing, combat, and possibly mystery and intrigue. At some point when amassing enough wealth or power for their characters, players goals, and therefore the goals of their character, may change, and they may want to establish an organization (a mercenary company, a guild, a kingdom, ect), build something (an inn, a castle, a town, an artifact) hire minions, or otherwise make their mark on the setting.

9. Who has the ultimate "authority" during the game session?
Usually, a game is fully controlled by a singular person; the GM. This can be problematic at times if the GM is new, biased, or just had a bad day. Therefore, ruling should go in this order: GM Fiat, Group Consensus.

10. How are characters made or organized?
First, the GM should familiarize the players with the available racial, class, and background templates. Once this is done the GM will either assign them a pool of character points or the group can roll their pool up; race and primary attributes are purchased with the same pool of points, so this is why character creation progresses this way. Once you have bought your race and spent the remaining points on attributes, you will select a background, then a class. Backgrounds help establish back story, what and who you were before adventuring, and most times contribute to starting gear and funds, as well as starting skills. Your class establishes the bulk of your adventuring skills and abilities, as well as allowing access to more potent abilities such as spells or fighting styles. They also give you starting gear and in some cases starting spells. You then can take your starting funds and buy mounts, extra gear or training for armor, weapons, fighting styles or spells.

11. What resources do I have available to characters, players, and GMs within the game?
Characters have access to hit points, resiliencies, skills, abilities, spells, fighting styles, minions, and teamwork. Players have access to the dice, any dice strategies that are written into the rules, the options they can apply to their characters, pools they can choose to purchase for their characters to fuel abilities and/or modify rolls, as well as group consensus. GMs have access to content creation tools (new races, classes, monsters & NPCs, treasure, vehicles, organizations, ect) GM fiat and Group consensus.

12. What is the setting/how is the setting presented during the game? What genres of play do I want to support/use/encompass?
My setting is implied rather than explicit; this serves to make room for GMs and players to customize their setting to their tastes; there are, however, some base concepts. The world is far older than anyone truly understands, with many kingdoms having risen and fallen over many millennia, not all of them human, or even of the known races. Magic is pervasive and mysterious, with only the established fields known and categorized, but still having unknown depths. There are no gods, though an enterprising GM could write them in as they see fit. Adventure and exploration are the primary themes and high fantasy is the genre, but I think the game could be adapted easily to cover more ground.

13. How do you envision players interacting with one another during the game?
In keeping with traditional fantasy roles, I am sure someone will play a damage sponge, another the healer/support/ another the sage or lore master, and one the trapsmith. There are certainly other roles a player could take, but this is a tried and true method in fantasy games. I am endeavoring to write abilities so that they augment one another, and can set up other players to use their abilities.

14. Will you use randomizers? What kind: dice, cards, biding, a pool of points, ect?
I plan on using dice, but at this point I'm unsure if I am going to use nothing but a single d20 as I originally planned, a die pool (and what kind of dice) or a mix. I am currently leaning towards using a d20 for most task and conflict resolution with d6s used for all damage.

15. Along with standard resources, how are players rewarded for "proper" play? How are they "punished" for disruptive play?
I see this less as a matter of reward/punishment as incentives & deterrents. I want to reward adventuring and exploration and deter sidetracking or tangential activities, such as slaughtering a camp of orc for no reason. Adventuring will garner experience and treasure; other activities will garner wanted posters, social pariaism, shop keepers refusing to do business with them, and finally ostracism from the adventuring party.

16. What kinds of Antagonists will characters face?
Players will face antagonistic NPCs as well as monsters and hazards. Antagonists will be categorized by how important they are to the story: Minions, Standard, Elite, and Nemesis.
Minions go down easily, and are more of an task than anything else. Standard NPCs are more of an obstacle. Elites are more on par with the player characters, and Nemeses are strong enough to take on the whole party by themselves.

17. What will character death mean to players of my game?
I want to make this more of an issue addressed by the GM and his group. If they want to have death be meaningful, don't include the items or spells that alleviate it; otherwise, much source material has at least one method of circumventing at least recent death, so I shall include some tools to do so.

18. Should my RPG be diceless? How will you protect player authorship?
I have no plans at this time to make this into a diceless game.

19. Will you provoke the players to moral judgements, and if so, how?
I have no plans to do this, but the GM might; how he or she approaches this matter is up to them.

20. Which decisions do the players make before they pick up or roll the dice, and which ones do they make after the dice hit the table?
This is in flux; I may or may not have meta-game options for influencing rolls. I assume players and GMs will agree on what skill or other ability is relevant to the issue at hand before rolling, and I am certain there will be a few talents or special class abilities that influence the final roll in some manner.

21. How do your resolutions keep conflict escalating?
In flux, still building the resolution mechanics; I don't think I will know until they are finished. That said, sometimes this doesn't need to be enforced mechanically.

22. How will you encourage the players to contribute to the setting & given situations; where will you limit those contributions?
I would like to encourage player to come up with their own groups and organizations in their backstories and fully fleshing them out with the GM when germane and interesting. I don't want to see players creating new races or classes without the GMs input, or the other players for that matter. I plan on having rules in place for creating organizations, vehicles, and items within the game setting.

23. How will you encourage player's "audience engagement?"
As usual, the player's main interface to the game is through the character sheet, and the GM. I have an idea for a 4 sectioned character sheet that is both attractive and functional. I do plan on making some meta-pools, optional, that the player can interact with; other than that, the User Interface is still in flux.

24. Does all of the above form a basic concept, of which I have a relatively clear vision?
Absolutely; though there is still several areas that need to be nailed down in a more concrete form.

25. Do I like my concept enough to really work on it, and understand it doesn't matter if anyone else likes it or not?
I don't really care if anyone beyond my current group likes this game; I'm mostly making it for me. I have other games designed to appeal to other people.

26. What is the core of my game: where could I compromise to make it better, and where should I draw the line?
I think I need to be ready to see the core dice mechanic change. I also think my list of classes may be excessive, and may need to be both shortened and reorganized.

27. What excites me about my game? Where in it is my heart & passion?
I'm excited to be incorporating all of my favorite fantasy elements, including some elements I've really only seen in video games, like the Final Fantasy series. I'm exited to be designing a fresh new undiscovered world for people to play in, one not weighed down by the fantasy tropes that have bored or disgusted me with other established worlds.

I'll give it a day or two to get some feedback, then I'll change it up and list my race, background and class templates; not so much the rules, but the ones I'm feeling like including, and why.