Forum > Design, Development, and Gameplay
New RPGs - Order of Design
Renegade_Productions:
I'm curious to know, when designing new RPGs, once the basic idea is decided upon, what is a useful design priority to follow.
Here's what I have been trying as an example:
1. Attributes and Skills, or equivilent
2. Derived Attributes and How To Calculate Them
3. Some, not all, Special Systems
4. How to build a character
5. ...
At the moment, I'm stuck trying to figure out if I'm missing something by step 4, or if I need to fully plan step 5 and onwards. (Hopefully what gets posted here can help other designers as well as me.)
Spinachcat:
Are you building a new system from scratch?
Or using an existing system?
Or modifying an existing system?
And if you're building from scratch, what systems are you imitating or rejecting? Few things are new under the sun.
Renegade_Productions:
--- Quote from: Spinachcat;1123659 ---Are you building a new system from scratch?
Or using an existing system?
Or modifying an existing system?
And if you're building from scratch, what systems are you imitating or rejecting? Few things are new under the sun.
--- End quote ---
Yep. The oWoD STS was initially in my sights given the basic idea, which is three creature lines that can be mixed and matched, but after some thinking I went with a mostly from scratch system that uses a D6 pool style.
It is currently using a similar Attributes system to Fallout and Wasteland 2's SPECIAL/CLASSIC system, which is rolled instead of point bought, and starting skill points/some derived attributes like base Health are determined by how young or old the character is, as well as skill investment maximums. Traits were a favorite part of classic/New Vegas Fallout, so a variant of that came along as well.
I know the STS, like a few others, are Theatre of the Mind kind of games, so deciding between that and GURPS' hex system for movement is a bit of a conflict, but the turn system would function like most: 3 seconds per turn by Initiative order.
That's most of what I've got so far.
Slipshot762:
--- Quote from: AgentBJ09;1123663 ---Yep. The oWoD STS was initially in my sights given the basic idea, which is three creature lines that can be mixed and matched, but after some thinking I went with a mostly from scratch system that uses a D6 pool style.
It is currently using a similar Attributes system to Fallout and Wasteland 2's SPECIAL/CLASSIC system, which is rolled instead of point bought, and starting skill points/some derived attributes like base Health are determined by how young or old the character is, as well as skill investment maximums. Traits were a favorite part of classic/New Vegas Fallout, so a variant of that came along as well.
I know the STS, like a few others, are Theatre of the Mind kind of games, so deciding between that and GURPS' hex system for movement is a bit of a conflict, but the turn system would function like most: 3 seconds per turn by Initiative order.
That's most of what I've got so far.
--- End quote ---
might i recommend the D6 system by west end games, the pdfs for star wars and the later produced fantasy/adventure/scifi are available for free and they are released under the ogl of 3e D&D fame. I'd considered making a fantasy setting for D6 fantasy myself but the more i look at it the more my ambition gets scaled back to just making a companion or supplement for such, since all thats really missing for it IS a setting or a more nailed down companion book that presents things more hardline than the free form toolkit format D6 is presented as. They tried to make it a sort of unisystem fantasy/scifi/adventure ruleset toolkit, and it reads as such, making it hard for many to see its true potential and leaving them full of questions, questions whose answers are "it depends on the game/setting/genre/tone/them you wish to run, it can do anything yo".
Renegade_Productions:
--- Quote from: Slipshot762;1123909 ---might i recommend the D6 system by west end games, the pdfs for star wars and the later produced fantasy/adventure/scifi are available for free and they are released under the ogl of 3e D&D fame. I'd considered making a fantasy setting for D6 fantasy myself but the more i look at it the more my ambition gets scaled back to just making a companion or supplement for such, since all thats really missing for it IS a setting or a more nailed down companion book that presents things more hardline than the free form toolkit format D6 is presented as. They tried to make it a sort of unisystem fantasy/scifi/adventure ruleset toolkit, and it reads as such, making it hard for many to see its true potential and leaving them full of questions, questions whose answers are "it depends on the game/setting/genre/tone/them you wish to run, it can do anything yo".
--- End quote ---
I bought those three PDFs on DriveThruRPG a few years ago. They would be a useful reference for system design, and as you pointed out, they're mostly missing a setting/companion book...
I'll look into using those as a basis for what I'm working on, though I'd still like to design something of my own with a D6 basis.
And I know others have done so for other games/settings. Cases in point: Talislanta and GURPS - Werewolf the Apocalypse. The former has three editions, each with the same basic information, but each using different rule sets like 5th Edition OGL or the aforementioned D6 Fantasy. The GURPS version of Werewolf is just that, so if you like GURPS more, have at it.
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