Monday, November 15, 2010

Latest changes to my simplified game system

Now let me say first, my interest in simplifying my game system predates my knowledge of the fantastic RPG Kids ( http://newbiedm.com/rpgkids/ ).  It was not my primary goal to create a RPG to play with kids, but I think the need is there.  RPG Kids is a great place to start for that, I give NewbieDM the props for his idea.  In fact I mandate you all who are under my influence to purchase a copy of his excellent work, should you fail to do so I will regard you as hypocrites to the cause of Independent role playing games.

Now that the elephant in the room has been mentioned, it should be of no bother.

In my last impossibly long post, I pasted the draft of a simplified version of my game system.  As I looked at it and ran it past some RPG buddies, I got some valuable feedback and have applied it.  Rather than another unreadable control+v of the latest version, here are the highlights:

- Attributes: 
     In my full game system, learned skill augments natural talent.  The learned skill component is time spent with a teacher practicing a skill.  The natural talent portion of the skill is the controlling attribute.  Skills can be used in contest and non-contest situations.  In a non-contest situation you take half the controlling attribute and add the skill, then roll under that with a d20.  In a contest situation you use the learned skill and add it to a d20 roll vs your opponent's roll, the highest roll wins the contest.
     This is a bit heavy for a "simple" system.  So I threw out the non-contest rules as this simple system is all about crunchy combat.  In the latest draft, there are two skills which are treated as attributes: Attack and Defend.  As you take damage, Attack and Defend go down until they are so negative that even the highest roll would be beat by a low roll.

- Weapon Ranges:
     In my full game there is a simple formula for calculating the cost of a weapon in character points.  But the formula was not simple enough, I wanted a 8 year old to be able to GM a game and following formulas might be beyond them.  Another issue was the way I deal with extra effort as well as point blank damage, it was all just too confusing for young newbies.
     Now in the current draft a weapon's damage is made lower for each square a target is from the attacker.  Rather than spending points on a missile weapon's range, they just do a lot of damage up close and less the further away you are.

I look forward to more playtesting with my kids as well as making some art for this project.  I hope to have a free edition available by Christmas and a more retail oriented version by spring.  The biggest problem at this point is coming up with a name for this mess... I am not good at that.

If you have an idea for a name or would like to see the latest draft please let me know!

3 comments:

  1. Hey this is NewbieDM... (your blog isn't letting me log on for some reason).

    I wanted to drop in and say kudos to you for realizing that the kids' market is seriously under served by the gaming industry.

    Congrats, and I can't wait to see what you've come up with!

    ReplyDelete
  2. NewbieDM again.... I forgot to say thanks for the plug! :)

    ReplyDelete

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