Game Building Help

[Nique]

It's that time again! Things have been progressing on my table-top game / system development.

Below is a sample character sheet. As you might be able to discern, Abilities and Features are derived from Raw Stats. Basically your starting character will get 30 Raw stat points to start with, the Ability scores are 10% of the relating stats (rounded up) which represents how many D6 you roll to determine the outcome of actions. Players can add extra dice under certain circumstances via Features and permanent enhancements to stats via armor and weaponry.

What I'm having trouble with is Skills at the moment. I have an existing skill-building chart that determines MP cost for different types of Buffs, Debuffs, and Damage dealing abilities (or a combination thereof). The problem with it currently is that there is surprisingly little variety in types of skills (there aren't really any spells besides buffs and debuffs to speak of) and also that it doesn't really allow MP scores to rise as the character levels up or else 1-2 hit kills can be potentially be repeated several times before mana runs out if it did rise with the character level.

To me, not having mana go up sounds kind of unsatisfying for magic/energy leaning characters. What I'm looking for is some suggestions and any feedback you guys feel like offering based on what you see here.



EDIT: Ugh. Guess I'm not sure how attachments work these days. Here:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I jsut have to know: Does the academia skill determine your ability to smoke a pipe, do work while smashed off whiskey, and trick undergrads into doing your work for you?

[Nique]

I jsut have to know: Does the academia skill determine your ability to smoke a pipe, do work while smashed off whiskey, and trick undergrads into doing your work for you?

I jsut have to know...

...jsut...

Are you drunk?

Also: If you can RP it in and RP it HARD, than hell yeah take the extra dice role.

[Azisien]

MP should rise with level but you can also increase the cost/effectiveness of whatever spells there are in this game. If you allow that though, to keep some semblance of power in check, just make sure effectiveness increases linearly and cost increases exponentially, or near.

[Nique]

Like the skill modifier goes up by 1 where cost doubles with each level?

Also what type of skills can I add that are more strategy oriented?

[Azisien]

Originally Posted by Nique

Like the skill modifier goes up by 1 where cost doubles with each level?

Yeah, something like that, or maybe something slow and geometric like it goes up by 1/1 for modifier/cost for a few levels, then 1/2, then 1/4, etc. You reach a happy medium because eventually, the cost becomes insurmountable so mages are capped in their power, but they also improve with levels and don't feel as bad.

Also what type of skills can I add that are more strategy oriented?

Strategy like, useful in combat? You could have a Tactics skill that gives bonuses to you and allies based on its modifier if you use it before combat.

[shiney]

Limit the amount of recovery items that can be used during a combat encounter? Forcing your players to strategize with limited resources or imposing cool-downs is much better than the "magic potion" "big spell" that some tend to go for.

[Bells]

That sheet screams of D&D but it's not really all that different from what i use myself when i working on my system...

One thing i did, at it seems to work ok, is to push the Magic system to a MMORPG mindset. So, even a normal fighter has some sort of Magic spell, even if it only buffs his sword skill...

The trick? As you level the character the character may level up his skills. Increasing power, range, speed and the such... but as you increase a certain skill, it's costs also rise.

So, in one go you have character customization (allowing characters to specialize in their skills) and progression. Also you don't have to worry about late payoff... like having characters gain skills late in the game that are just new versions of old skills or weaker than early skills.

[Meister]

How exactly do abilities work when they're based off two stats? Like Power STR/VIT - is it the average of the two, the better, one divided by the other etc?

Also, what constitutes a successful roll? Never played anything with dice pools.

[Nique]

The two-stat based Abilities are an average of the two stats / 10.

As far as Dice rolls... well, let's say my Awareness (which includes accuracy) score is '2', and I'm trying to hit a monster with a Stealth (Evasion) of '3'. I would roll 2 D6s and the GM would roll 3 D6s. If I rolled higher than the GM then my attack lands.

Then you roll in the same way for damage - Basically roll how ever many D6s (determined by the Skill and the attacking Ability) against the defender's D6s and the result is the damage taken in hit points.

The game can be played without dice roles, or without dice roles determining everything. The math all works out the same (the equations are all a little complicated, but they work). It just seemed more fun that way.

Originally Posted by Shiney

imposing cool-downs

Ohh! Actually a pretty good suggestion... I could make anything with a potential for extremely high damage be a once-per-battle/ once per day ability. I'll have to think about how to determine the cost for something like that but I like it...

That sheet screams of D&D

Yeah I'm kind of hoping the hook for this lay within the ability to customize games around the core system - For basically the last two years I've been creating equations that per-balance multiple game types and this particular game is just one example. I know the stats especially are pretty much DnD's lineup, although if I'm not mistaken I'm using the WIS stat in a fairly unique way. That may be just a superficial difference though.

I'm kind of trying to break down RPG elements into more universal categories that can be added to or removed from created games, as well as give flexibility to PCs without creating an unbalanced game.