Is it going to be a tactical combat tabletop game? Is the combat going to be less of a focus?
I'm a huge fan of the grid based tactical game play of 4E. Sure there are a bunch of dumb ways to break parts of that on an individual level, but overall I really enjoy it. Recently I've started a game and we've pushed hard to not include any strikers. This has left the group to rely on every character and everyone's turn feels more meaningful.
I would like to see a combination of a 4E style tactics game but with a player card deck involved. Something where powers are a bit randomized. Maybe give each class some sort of option to discard x number of cards to do something basic if they don't have anything situational.
Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
As someone who is always interested in magic systems, I'm going to start tossing out magic ideas. I have a lot of ideas, and I'm flexible so we can figure some things out. This is just preliminary spitballing.
It sounds like we want a risk/reward, decisions have consequences type system. If this is the case, and we want to focus on large-scale naval battles, it could be interesting to see a system where the ships are powered by magic, and the way people cast spells is by drawing power from the ship.
So every spell you cast could decrease the capabilities of the ship slightly, although obviously spellcasters would have to be able to at least hold their own if they choose not to use magic.
The fast paced system also makes me think that body-modification magic could work.
Is it going to be a tactical combat tabletop game? Is the combat going to be less of a focus?
I believe that people are lending towards tactical combat. Especially with Naval combat on the table with the Pirate theme.
I would like to see a combination of a 4E style tactics game but with a player card deck involved. Something where powers are a bit randomized. Maybe give each class some sort of option to discard x number of cards to do something basic if they don't have anything situational.
I couldn't see that as fun but a cooldown timer like BattleCon uses were you have two discard piles and once you play a card that card goes into discard pile two, then next turn moves to one, then next turn returns to your hand might work. But that's still kinda clunky, imo.
As someone who is always interested in magic systems, I'm going to start tossing out magic ideas. I have a lot of ideas, and I'm flexible so we can figure some things out. This is just preliminary spitballing.
It sounds like we want a risk/reward, decisions have consequences type system. If this is the case, and we want to focus on large-scale naval battles, it could be interesting to see a system where the ships are powered by magic, and the way people cast spells is by drawing power from the ship.
So every spell you cast could decrease the capabilities of the ship slightly, although obviously spellcasters would have to be able to at least hold their own if they choose not to use magic.
The fast paced system also makes me think that body-modification magic could work.
This works swimmingly until spellcasters are away from their ships and then what? They're slightly-less-than-good pirates? How is that fun for them when the crew inevitably disembarks to search for treasure or stab Spaniards in their forts?
Pirates that sail in X (sand, sky, underground, in a city-dimension like Ravnica, Chinese Pirate Age, all the above.) Naval Combat Tactical Combat. I think we are going with hex until people have a problem with that. Magic is Science. How it works, we don't know. Yet. Something other than d20. Fudge dice have been suggested, and so far nothing else has been put to the table.
Other ideas that haven't been decided: Momentum System Either as a energy pool that charges based on attacking and moving or part of a stamina system. Spellcasters gain power from ship but we have no idea what they do without the ships. Two Actions per turn action economy so Strikers don't do a ton of damage while everyone else just stands around. "Math should be flatter than 4E and concepts like "Feat taxes" should be abolished." Make Monsters do more than have a ton of HP I believe we aren't there yet. Resistance and Weakness have RP bonuses/penalties. Elemental Magic works like regular elements Fire burns, Lighting electrifies water, water freezes in cold, ect. Stun is more of a daze. Hinders actions but doesn't completely stop it. Player Card Deck for tactical randomness.
Stuff to decide: Systemd20 Fudge dice. Limit of spellcasters How many, how powerful, how useful, ect. Level Curve Tech Level
All this is going to the second post. That's a lot done of brainstorming for less than 24 hours. If I missed anything, sorry, there was a lot to go through.
Grunt's Ghosts on
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I don't think there is any superiority to the d20 for a system as a base mechanic. It could be d10s, d6s or whatever.
So long as the math is even and fair, then it doesn't matter. The goal should be a roughly even level of challenge where the players are generally expected to succeed the vast majority of the time. Difficulty should come through adding higher level enemies, having more overall antagonists and the overall design of the encounter. Hence why I suggested a rough base of 60% (with no bonuses) to hit an even level foe, with antagonists having around 50% chance to strike PCs. The core maths of how the system work + randomness should produce that result - it doesn't matter what dice you use! You could be rolling multiple d10s like in White Wolf and picking out hits/misses for example then calculating damage off that. You could have a dual roll type system, where attacker and defender both roll a die + add modifiers and the difference between the attack/defense result = damage dealt etc.
There are so many wonderful ways you can accomplish the same thing that there is a lot of discussion to have just on that point first: Some people might find a system where attacker/defender both roll tedious and slow, while others might find that a much better and more intuitive way of doing things (EG defenses are equivalent to attacks in how they work). My personal opinion is to make the simplest system possible that produces a wide variety of interesting tactical situations and results. Hence why I look at a basic system of being able to do 2 core actions a turn, with maybe a reaction and possibly an "item use" action in there as well. I feel looking at a rules system that is codified like 4E is the best way of accomplishing that, as opposed to arguing back and forth for 30 minutes hoping your DM agrees with your interpretation of a natural language rule.
What I'd like to do is remove the layer of complex cruft that slows down a 4E game like relentless self triggering situations (EG Free Actions that caused 4E to boil down to a mess in epic tier in particular) while still retaining the idea that what players can do is firmly protected by the rules: It's just up to how the players use them to get the most out of what they can do in combat. In other words, I like the idea that 4E gave everyone unique interesting things to do like "Stab this guy in the face with an arrow, push him a square and then shoot an enemy within weapon range". Everything codified into rules and clear how it works, no "Mother may I" game design ala 3E or next. At the same time I want to see characters do more of a DnD Essentials approach in that I want someone who just says "I want to hit things over and over" to be able to play a basic swordsman archetype and have a fun time. I also want someone who wants their swordsman to do things like knock everyone down around them, jump a great distance before an attack, smash his way through an enemy knocking them out of the way to attack another etc to exist too.
Basically I want a system that 4E almost achieved but broke on several levels pre and post-essentials where characters of all kinds are scalable from simple but effective, to more complex but not dominating the game. The slayer as opposed to the traditional 4E fighter is a good example.
Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
I can think of ways we could make the magic more interesting, but it butts up against one of the foremost problems we might face.
It's hard to design a really good logical system of magic without defining the world by it.
For example, I like to think of some really unique systems of magic from recent years:
Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson has wonderfully fluid and yet not incredibly powerful magic
Full Metal Alchemist is a great example of magic as science
Runelords, by David Farland is one of my favourite magic systems, and it's incredibly unique and wonderful
The Black Prism, by Brent Weeks, although not my favourite series, still has a well-constructed system of magic
The thing is, all of these worlds are defined by the magic. The plot of every book or episode is linked to the limitations, mysteries and explorations of magic. Because magic is so well defined and logical, it is satisfying to test the parameters of what you can do.
By contrast, traditional D&D has magic just because people want to cast spells. In the D&D world, magic is a part of the world, but it's not the main unifying theme.
We could make it work, but it could be hard to make a truly satisfying magic system without focusing our world upon that magic. If we want to focus on the magic, that's fine, but it seems like we want a more pirate-y "magic is cool but not necessary" vibe from it.
I think adding a third pool to my proposed system above could work, so you divide points into magic, momentum and martial pools.
That said, we'd have to have an interesting setting for pirates and magic to be both thematically linked. Also not sure how ranged non-magical attacks work in my system
I dunno. 3 always seems like a good number. Not to mention that it roughly correlates to Ref, Fort and Will pools. Probably wouldn't be anything like straight AC though.
I would actually advise against "pirates" as the basis of things so much as making sure it is piracy-enabled. That is, unlike ANY version of D&D, making sure that vehicles and 3D movement (and maybe mounts and pets) are incorporated into the rules as more than a side-note. You also have to limit movement options so that vehicles don't become a liability or a pokemount.
Piracy-enabled systems also mean that you need to keep magic from being the best answer to all questions (lol pirates meet fireball lol). This means that magic needs to be scarce, small, slow, weak, difficult, or easy-to-counter. You also want to have a world where characters can freely ignore heavy armor, which determines the sorts of classes or class-like concepts you introduce.
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Regarding dice/cards/whatever random element:
The right one to use generally comes down to granularity and frequency. A d20 is little more than a coin-flip unless there's a bunch of modifiers and crits involved. I personally like the idea of making every number on the roll meaningful, though that means limiting the number of options for sanity's sake.
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Regarding abilities:
I'm a big advocate for an Oomph system kind of like 4E psionics mixed with Legend's track system. Give characters some basic abilities and some power points and let them add some extra oomph to them until they wear themselves out.
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AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
Yeah I agree with that, hence why I am critical of trying to make a setting before deciding as to what kind of game you want to support. A specific system that supports a specific style of game is fine, but you need to decide that's what you're going to do and roll with the required assumptions right from the start.
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited December 2013
I'd suggest that ships could act as batteries for magic by obliging the characters to feed loot of some kind into them to power them. Somewhat along spelljammer lines, characters could then need to be attuned to ship engines / batteries / whatever to fuel magical abilities.
Presumably some magical-type stuff might work fine without proximity to said batteries, perhaps allowing for a system where powers recharge more slowly away from a power core or something similar. Then you get the potentially-amusing effect of ship combat involving the characters using their fanciest abilities (or powered-up versions of their regular ones?) with an away-team mode where they're more constrained. The 4e parallel is DMs / encounters calibrated around the expectation that dailies are always available versus dungeon-crawling and endurance scenarios.
Further, and without going into detail: why not do away with the wealth / loot dichotomy and just treat magic as the de facto currency?
Ships as batteries seems like it would dramatically limit the possibilities of the game into something more like a specific war game scenario.
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Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
What if ship batteries were large, but you could chip off crystal fragments to take with you off-ship.
These smaller fragments are much less powerful, and are drained more easily, but are obviously easier to transport.
Treasure must be fed to the ship battery to bulk it back up to full size, which gives a bonus motive of always giving pirates a reason to plunder. Richer pirates have access to better magic.
This could also potentially lead well into two different battle modes where one is on an individual level and one is on a ship-wide level, which people seem to be pushing for.
The only downside I can see is that it centers all of a pirate ships escapades around their crystals.
What if ship batteries were large, but you could chip off crystal fragments to take with you off-ship.
These smaller fragments are much less powerful, and are drained more easily, but are obviously easier to transport.
Treasure must be fed to the ship battery to bulk it back up to full size, which gives a bonus motive of always giving pirates a reason to plunder. Richer pirates have access to better magic.
This could also potentially lead well into two different battle modes where one is on an individual level and one is on a ship-wide level, which people seem to be pushing for.
The only downside I can see is that it centers all of a pirate ships escapades around their crystals.
Well, who's to say the ships are the only place one can keep a crystal? You'd expect cities and whatnot to have them as well, which presumably is what pirates are after.
Otherwise this is the pretty much where my suggestion was meant to point.
If ships are batteries effective radius becomes a factor, but as Sir Fab said, presumably smaller crystals or whatever would be an option.
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Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
edited December 2013
Well, we still haven't talked about what these crystals (or whatever they are) actually do. To me, the purpose is to limit magical tomfoolery by clearly limiting the amount of magical power available, while not shitting on spellcasters who stray from the ship. It's less that the ship is your wizard, and more that a ship is your spellbook.
It also creates potential for crazy cool naval combat magic.
Edit: Yes Auralynx, I was thinking much the same. Ships are not the only places to have crystals.
Cities, rich lords, and ancient ruins would probably have large ones as well.
I know someone else said they wanted to search through ancient ruins for technomagic. I think the crystals could work well with that.
I think adding a third pool to my proposed system above could work, so you divide points into magic, momentum and martial pools.
That said, we'd have to have an interesting setting for pirates and magic to be both thematically linked. Also not sure how ranged non-magical attacks work in my system
I think we should stick with two.
One that covers your qi, luck, x-factor, grit, etc. This works as both your hit points and mana pool (for whatever magic system we lean towards).
Another that covers "momentum," e.g. how "on it" you are. This resets every scene. You can build momentum through descriptive narration on non-trivial actions (e.g. anything that would require a roll).
It just seems to turn the ship into the D&D wizard.
"Oh you guys are going to go without me? Well here have some potions of crazy wizard shit because of how useless you all are."
Well, at least in my conception, the ship / crystal / whatever is more akin to a resource pool that makes powers better rather than the thing that lets you use them at all, fwiw.
I can see that being something a party could maybe pick up in their adventures, but it seems excessive as a default assumption, and something that would limit the game options. Maybe it's used by a particular culture or any military force with a big enough budget, and any pirate worth its salt would want to steal one eventually so they can rob sky ports instead of just seaports.
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Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
All this talk about crystals and magic makes it sound like materia to me. Which wouldn't exactly be a bad thing, but it's something to think about. The cool thing with something like that is that if all the PCs are doing it, the distinctions are how they use the stuff and what effect it has.
You could have the crystals affect everyone equally...as a way to get amped. The fighters are typically dangerous, but can tap into the crystals in their weapons or armor to regenerate faster or move quicker, you know rare feats of superhuman stuff. Then you have some more scholarly types who have the crystals rigged into various apparatus to produce different effects like electricity or fire, which have a standard function but can be supercharged by the crystals. Then there's the support types who help everyone else out, plus a little added bonus of swapping resources around or granting bonus momentum.
This goes a little bit far from the idea of fighters being strictly fighters though. I just think if magic is science, then they should have some new weapons just like real soldiers would. A way to distinguish the actual spellcasters could be designing, setting, and creating the machines or artifacts that work with the crystals.
Also, I think the crystals should work like magic from Dark Sun, defiling the area around them or something similar if we want to keep it out of reach of smallfolk. They need very precise measurements of ley lines or even spirits lured into them, or you could ask a spirit to help you recharge it. Magic needs some danger and superstition involved, even if it's a science.
Also, count me as another vote for a framework that takes base options and lets you tack on extras to it. This should be the way everything in the game works, though. Attacks, movement, skills, etc. The same applies for vehicles. There's the mundane way to accomplish something, and then there's the heroic, scoundrel or magic way to do it.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited December 2013
Apart from the Dark Sun idea, everything Toothy is saying is in line with what I had in mind. I like Dark Sun, but particularly with a pirate theme I think more-is-better is probably the most sensible rule re: magical resources.
As a suggestion for magic-as-treasure, if crystals / orichalcum / whatever are used in nearly everything, presumably with a larger power source there would be some opportunity to recalibrate and reassign what things work for, too.
Also, I think the crystals should work like magic from Dark Sun, defiling the area around them or something similar if we want to keep it out of reach of smallfolk. They need very precise measurements of ley lines or even spirits lured into them, or you could ask a spirit to help you recharge it. Magic needs some danger and superstition involved, even if it's a science.
If using magic taps into their mojo pools, that's enough danger alone. You could potentially have "norms" kill themselves by coming into contact with a crystal. Reason enough for them to avoid it.
Arcane Crystals are raw energy in physical form. Without proper tools, they will burn, explode, and kill you if even experience spellcasters try to use them. However, using runes, made of wood, stone, or metal, along with objects like swords, armors, shields, pistols, ships, Magic can be safely moved from the crystal to the rune, which will change the property of the energy to create a spell. We could even say that no one can truly cast spells, that all "Magic" is controlled through runes. Runecasters (see what I did there!) are people who spend their lives studying and building tools and runes, trying to better their craft and create special tools, like the Caster Gauntlet*, to help use magic faster. Using Runes and Crystals is a science in and of itself. When it comes to Runes, size and material counts. Wood is usually a poor man's rune, crafted to work a few times. Each use will create the desired effect, but the wood will burn slowly each use until its gone. Stone works better for runes and most people who do use them use stone runes. Metal Runes are the best, strong metals like iron, or precious metals like gold or silver, can withstand the arcane pressures, but that's still if the size is right. If a rune is too big for a crystal, it will drain the crystal too fast. If a rune is too small, the rune won't be able to handle the pressure, causing the rune to crack, and soon explode. Because of this, all ships that run on crystal engines hire Runecasters to keep the engines running. Also, using multiple runes on a crystal at the same time could drain it faster too. Runecasters keep these things in mind when matching runes to crystals, especially on ships, when using multiple runes are commonplace.
Arcane crystals can recharge in three ways. Over time, as arcane energy is all around. Runecaster estimate that crystals regain 10% of their energy over the course of an hour. Another way is to "feed the beast" as captains call it. By throwing precious metals and jewels into the crystal, it can charge quickly. Captains do this only in cases of emergency. Ships with Crystal Engines are always targets of pirate because of this as each ship is allowed an "Emergency Fuel" locker, filled with gold and jewels. The last way of charging a crystal is bring it to an Arcane Well. Wells are created when two or more ley lines meet, causing the energy to explode from the earth. They can be underground, underwater, in jungles, on island. Most major cities are build around such a well. This is where Arcane Crystals come from as they grow around the wells. The massive energy around a well can keep a crystal fully charged even when being used constantly. Pirates always mark where they see mining ships so they can keep an eye out for Arcane Wells.
*The Caster Gauntlet is a special glove, sometimes made of leather but most of the time made of metal, that has a small crystal on the forearm and a disk with rune slots on the dorsum of the hand. Runecasters spin the disk so the rune they want to use is on the top of the disk and push the disk down to cause the rune to charge. Most casters also close their hands during the charge, but that's not necessary. Once the rune is charged, casters flick their fingers, causing the spell to be release from them.
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TiamatZGhost punsThe Banette of my existenceRegistered Userregular
I just have some questions on two points regarding this thread:
1) Race
How will races be given/selected for this game?
Will it be the tried and cliche Tolkienesque races (Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Orc) that are prevalent in all fantasy games or will we be able to diversify it with much more exotic, original races?
Will races have their own racial bonuses?
Will there be penalties ala 3.5/Pathfinder?
Will/Should there be tension amongst these races, and if so, how will this be handled by the DM and the PCs?
Will there be favored classes for said races?
Can/Should PCs be awarded for staying in character when playing a favored lass of that race?
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2) Classes
How will classes be implemented?
Will it be based on the classic Tabletop classes (ie. Cleric, Mage, Thief and Warrior) with their own sets of rules on how to function?
And how will class progression work exactly?
Will it be based on 3.0/Pathfinder rules (where a player could only choose a prestige class once a number of requirements were met), 4th Ed rules (players choose a Paragon/Epic class once they reached the correct level) or a combination of both?
Or will PCs merely choose a Base class and choose specializations/feats after a select few levels?
Or for that matter, will/should stock classes even exist? Wouldn't PCs rather mix and match feats at character creation to make their own class as they see fit (like say a PC selects a number of pirate and warrior/fighter feats to create a swashbuckling corsair or select a number of wizard/mage feats alongside rogue feats to create their own version of an Arcane Trickster)?
Basically my tl;dr version on the above will be: How flexible will we allow Character Creation to be? How simple/complex will we make it? Would it be simple enough to get a group session started in less than an hour tops, or complex enough to offer players choices on what they would like to choose?
How will races be given/selected for this game? So far we don't know. I'd like to say that players just pick them from the list of races available.
Will it be the tried and cliche Tolkienesque races (Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Orc) that are prevalent in all fantasy games or will we be able to diversify it with much more exotic, original races? I'll like to see both, with histories and ideas of these races updated to a 17th Century setting. Will races have their own racial bonuses? Still in the air at the moment but I'd say they will, even if its not a straight up +/-2 to stat. Will there be penalties ala 3.5/Pathfinder? Again, still in the air. Will/Should there be tension amongst these races, and if so, how will this be handled by the DM and the PCs? Depends. Most of the story hasn't been fleshed out, but I could see rivalries existing between races, especially if some former "monster races" like Goblins and Orcs find their way to being among the civil races. Will there be favored classes for said races? Don't know for now. I'd like there not to be. Can/Should PCs be awarded for staying in character when playing a favored lass of that race? I'm assuming you mean class. That should be something between GMs and players.
2) Classes
How will classes be implemented? Currently in the air. Most of these questions are. Will it be based on the classic Tabletop classes (ie. Cleric, Mage, Thief and Warrior) with their own sets of rules on how to function? I'd like to say yes and no, as with the Pirate theme, some things will be changed. Most people won't be running around in plate mail while sailing across an ocean, for example. And how will class progression work exactly? CITA Will it be based on 3.0/Pathfinder rules (where a player could only choose a prestige class once a number of requirements were met), 4th Ed rules (players choose a Paragon/Epic class once they reached the correct level) or a combination of both? CITA Or will PCs merely choose a Base class and choose specializations/feats after a select few levels? CITA Or for that matter, will/should stock classes even exist? Wouldn't PCs rather mix and match feats at character creation to make their own class as they see fit (like say a PC selects a number of pirate and warrior/fighter feats to create a swashbuckling corsair or select a number of wizard/mage feats alongside rogue feats to create their own version of an Arcane Trickster)? This I personally would like to see. That way you can truly play the kind of character you want to play. If say my rune idea above got used, I could see people mixing monk and runecaster together to become elemental benders like in Avatar:TLA/LoK style. The idea I have on this is each "class" as a talent tree and you buy talents to mix and match classes. Balancing would be an issue doing this, but Character Creation would have tons of choices and ways to match your character's background to your class and vise versa.
Basically my tl;dr version on the above will be: How flexible will we allow Character Creation to be? How simple/complex will we make it? Would it be simple enough to get a group session started in less than an hour tops, or complex enough to offer players choices on what they would like to choose? I'd like to see CC be simple but complex. In that it's easy to create a character with little experience in the system or roleplaying in general but complex enough that no two people will ever create the same character or argue about who's playing what class. That's my dream but since this is a group effort, we will have to see how we decide.
Right now we need to get our system locked in. So far I've heard mixed ideas about using d20. Some people hate it and want something else, others believe that it will make building this game easier.
So we have on the table d20 system and the Fudge system. I'd like to hear if anyone else had more ideas or if you rather have one or the other.
Whilst I like the idea of FUDGE, I don't think it works very well for combat.
The thing is, with two unbalanced combatants, I'd like to see the dice reflect the disparity. With FUDGE, it seems no matter how many dice you roll against an opponent, your average is going to be whatever your skill level is, not your skill level plus a bonus because you're hitting someone who can't defend themselves, or minus a value because you're attacking a walking wall.
Instead, how about we use a FUDGEish system that just gives you dice based on your adjective or stat or pip pool for that attack or check, and then these dice only have two outcomes on them, + or nothing.
So if you're rolling against someone, you have your standard amount of dice that would give you your standard attack power, and then the enemy would roll dice representing their standard defense. If you roll more +s than your enemy, you hit and deal damage proportional to the number of +s. If you don't roll more then you deal no damage.
Similarly, during a skill check, you convert your skill level to the appropriate number of dice, roll those, and then see whether you roll enough +s to pass the check.
The only problem here is that combat would be skewed somewhat towards a defender, as a tie would mean 0 damage, assuming both the attack and defense roll off the same stat. You could make it so that you deal damage equal to the difference +1 to skew it the attacker's way I guess.
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Suggestions for crystal features and drawbacks, some of which wouldn't play well with one another:
- Ardent's notion that channeling too much crystal power relative to X be dangerous. Possibly this is a function of statistics or classes?
- Crystals going into runaway reactions if too much power is generated at once or their attendant mechanisms aren't run right, as in nuclear reactors.
- Crystals, rather than serving as batteries, literally control ability access as with materia. Characters have to attune to crystals to use them in order to prevent rampant goodie-swapping, and may be absorbed after attunement. Stationary large crystals then become catalysts for potential power rather than sources that provide it outright.
- Abilities are learned and crystals are used to access fancier or larger-scale versions of them, as with psionic power points in 4e. Crystals should then probably be tiered rather than a pool of energy, allowing fancier ability enhancement in fancier forms rather.
- Characters can choose to gain permanent features created with magical energy but have a limited pool of lifeforce to do so with, as with Shadowrun's essence. Higher-essence characters are better at magic-magic. Think One Piece's devil fruits for the sort of permanent features involved.
- Having few or no abilities reliant on crystals also decreases the danger others' powers pose to you.
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Sir FabulousMalevolent Squid GodRegistered Userregular
edited December 2013
1) Race
How will races be given/selected for this game? I would assume there will be a list of races in the Player's Handbook.
Although I love stuff like Gamma World, I'm not a huge fan of random character creation.
Will it be the tried and cliche Tolkienesque races (Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Orc) that are prevalent in all fantasy games or will we be able to diversify it with much more exotic, original races? Personally, I'm a little tired of Tolkien races but in space or Tolkien races in a steampunk world. I would like to see some new races come into play.
Will races have their own racial bonuses? I would say absolutely. I think that races should always get bonuses to play because it gives people a real reason to play, say, a dwarf over an elf. I think removing racial bonuses homogenizes races into being a bit unmemorable.
Will there be penalties ala 3.5/Pathfinder? I don't know. I could go either way, with my initial stand leaning towards no.
Will/Should there be tension amongst these races, and if so, how will this be handled by the DM and the PCs? Tension between races exists so that there are stories you can tell with those tensions. I think there should be some tension between races. Obviously we don't want to encourage anti-party play, so we have to be careful with it.
Will there be favored classes for said races? No, I don't really like that idea. However, like I said above, I do think that racial bonuses should exist, which would naturally cause players to lean certain races towards certain classes.
Can/Should PCs be awarded for staying in character when playing a favored class of that race? House rules should determine this.
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2) Classes
How will classes be implemented? I'm cautious about the very open-ended class ideas that people are having. I'm not a professional game designer myself, and I think it would be easiest to balance if we have a list of classes like D&D. If we want to try something else, I'll go for it, but maybe that could go in "Pirate Crystals 2.0" if that ever exists.
Will it be based on the classic Tabletop classes (ie. Cleric, Mage, Thief and Warrior) with their own sets of rules on how to function? I think there's a reason that those core classes exist, from a design standpoint. That said, I think we should base our classes partly off of the classics, while still creating a couple new ideas of our own.
And how will class progression work exactly? I would be interested in doing something other than levels, but I'm open to anything.
Will it be based on 3.0/Pathfinder rules (where a player could only choose a prestige class once a number of requirements were met), 4th Ed rules (players choose a Paragon/Epic class once they reached the correct level) or a combination of both? I always sort of liked prestige classes, as long as the requirements weren't seriously convoluted and insane (and there were plenty like that), because it made me feel part of a small group of elite members.
Or will PCs merely choose a Base class and choose specializations/feats after a select few levels? I don't know!
Or for that matter, will/should stock classes even exist? Wouldn't PCs rather mix and match feats at character creation to make their own class as they see fit (like say a PC selects a number of pirate and warrior/fighter feats to create a swashbuckling corsair or select a number of wizard/mage feats alongside rogue feats to create their own version of an Arcane Trickster)? Like I said, this would be fun, but very challenging from a design perspective. It might be best to stick to actual classes for now.
Sir Fabulous on
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Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
What about maybe taking a look at the Cortex Plus system from something like Marvel Heroic Roleplaying?
I thought about that but I think Cortex isn't good for long campaigns. Even if you start with d6 powers, sooner than later, you'll get d12 and you'll be Galactus running around the game. I think that's why MHR incourges "unlocking" heroes and what not so you don't run into this problem.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
FWIW, regarding character creation, I think picking a role as in 4E's Defender / Striker / Controller etc system is actually the closest to classless you can get while still pushing people towards defined jobs.
FWIW, regarding character creation, I think picking a role as in 4E's Defender / Striker / Controller etc system is actually the closest to classless you can get while still pushing people towards defined jobs.
Even something as simple as differences in managing the various player-currency economies in the game can get players moving in specific directions.
Choose one at character creation;
Tough Guy: You get an Awesome Point (AP) when you take damage.
Fast Guy: You get an AP whenever you move more than [insert distance unit] on your turn.
Blaster Guy: You get an AP whenever you hit more than one bad guy with an ability.
Obviously it doesn't have to be that simplistic, but that kind of out-of-the-box focusing mechanic can help channel players into roles without feeling like a straightjacket.
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I'm a huge fan of the grid based tactical game play of 4E. Sure there are a bunch of dumb ways to break parts of that on an individual level, but overall I really enjoy it. Recently I've started a game and we've pushed hard to not include any strikers. This has left the group to rely on every character and everyone's turn feels more meaningful.
I would like to see a combination of a 4E style tactics game but with a player card deck involved. Something where powers are a bit randomized. Maybe give each class some sort of option to discard x number of cards to do something basic if they don't have anything situational.
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It sounds like we want a risk/reward, decisions have consequences type system. If this is the case, and we want to focus on large-scale naval battles, it could be interesting to see a system where the ships are powered by magic, and the way people cast spells is by drawing power from the ship.
So every spell you cast could decrease the capabilities of the ship slightly, although obviously spellcasters would have to be able to at least hold their own if they choose not to use magic.
The fast paced system also makes me think that body-modification magic could work.
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I believe that people are lending towards tactical combat. Especially with Naval combat on the table with the Pirate theme.
I couldn't see that as fun but a cooldown timer like BattleCon uses were you have two discard piles and once you play a card that card goes into discard pile two, then next turn moves to one, then next turn returns to your hand might work. But that's still kinda clunky, imo.
I need to work on that...
Pirates that sail in X (sand, sky, underground, in a city-dimension like Ravnica, Chinese Pirate Age, all the above.)
Naval Combat Tactical Combat. I think we are going with hex until people have a problem with that.
Magic is Science. How it works, we don't know. Yet.
Something other than d20. Fudge dice have been suggested, and so far nothing else has been put to the table.
Other ideas that haven't been decided:
Momentum System Either as a energy pool that charges based on attacking and moving or part of a stamina system.
Spellcasters gain power from ship but we have no idea what they do without the ships.
Two Actions per turn action economy so Strikers don't do a ton of damage while everyone else just stands around.
"Math should be flatter than 4E and concepts like "Feat taxes" should be abolished."
Make Monsters do more than have a ton of HP I believe we aren't there yet.
Resistance and Weakness have RP bonuses/penalties.
Elemental Magic works like regular elements Fire burns, Lighting electrifies water, water freezes in cold, ect.
Stun is more of a daze. Hinders actions but doesn't completely stop it.
Player Card Deck for tactical randomness.
Stuff to decide:
System d20 Fudge dice.
Limit of spellcasters How many, how powerful, how useful, ect.
Level Curve
Tech Level
All this is going to the second post. That's a lot done of brainstorming for less than 24 hours. If I missed anything, sorry, there was a lot to go through.
I don't think there is any superiority to the d20 for a system as a base mechanic. It could be d10s, d6s or whatever.
So long as the math is even and fair, then it doesn't matter. The goal should be a roughly even level of challenge where the players are generally expected to succeed the vast majority of the time. Difficulty should come through adding higher level enemies, having more overall antagonists and the overall design of the encounter. Hence why I suggested a rough base of 60% (with no bonuses) to hit an even level foe, with antagonists having around 50% chance to strike PCs. The core maths of how the system work + randomness should produce that result - it doesn't matter what dice you use! You could be rolling multiple d10s like in White Wolf and picking out hits/misses for example then calculating damage off that. You could have a dual roll type system, where attacker and defender both roll a die + add modifiers and the difference between the attack/defense result = damage dealt etc.
There are so many wonderful ways you can accomplish the same thing that there is a lot of discussion to have just on that point first: Some people might find a system where attacker/defender both roll tedious and slow, while others might find that a much better and more intuitive way of doing things (EG defenses are equivalent to attacks in how they work). My personal opinion is to make the simplest system possible that produces a wide variety of interesting tactical situations and results. Hence why I look at a basic system of being able to do 2 core actions a turn, with maybe a reaction and possibly an "item use" action in there as well. I feel looking at a rules system that is codified like 4E is the best way of accomplishing that, as opposed to arguing back and forth for 30 minutes hoping your DM agrees with your interpretation of a natural language rule.
What I'd like to do is remove the layer of complex cruft that slows down a 4E game like relentless self triggering situations (EG Free Actions that caused 4E to boil down to a mess in epic tier in particular) while still retaining the idea that what players can do is firmly protected by the rules: It's just up to how the players use them to get the most out of what they can do in combat. In other words, I like the idea that 4E gave everyone unique interesting things to do like "Stab this guy in the face with an arrow, push him a square and then shoot an enemy within weapon range". Everything codified into rules and clear how it works, no "Mother may I" game design ala 3E or next. At the same time I want to see characters do more of a DnD Essentials approach in that I want someone who just says "I want to hit things over and over" to be able to play a basic swordsman archetype and have a fun time. I also want someone who wants their swordsman to do things like knock everyone down around them, jump a great distance before an attack, smash his way through an enemy knocking them out of the way to attack another etc to exist too.
Basically I want a system that 4E almost achieved but broke on several levels pre and post-essentials where characters of all kinds are scalable from simple but effective, to more complex but not dominating the game. The slayer as opposed to the traditional 4E fighter is a good example.
It's hard to design a really good logical system of magic without defining the world by it.
For example, I like to think of some really unique systems of magic from recent years:
Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson has wonderfully fluid and yet not incredibly powerful magic
Full Metal Alchemist is a great example of magic as science
Runelords, by David Farland is one of my favourite magic systems, and it's incredibly unique and wonderful
The Black Prism, by Brent Weeks, although not my favourite series, still has a well-constructed system of magic
The thing is, all of these worlds are defined by the magic. The plot of every book or episode is linked to the limitations, mysteries and explorations of magic. Because magic is so well defined and logical, it is satisfying to test the parameters of what you can do.
By contrast, traditional D&D has magic just because people want to cast spells. In the D&D world, magic is a part of the world, but it's not the main unifying theme.
We could make it work, but it could be hard to make a truly satisfying magic system without focusing our world upon that magic. If we want to focus on the magic, that's fine, but it seems like we want a more pirate-y "magic is cool but not necessary" vibe from it.
What do other people think.
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That said, we'd have to have an interesting setting for pirates and magic to be both thematically linked. Also not sure how ranged non-magical attacks work in my system
Piracy-enabled systems also mean that you need to keep magic from being the best answer to all questions (lol pirates meet fireball lol). This means that magic needs to be scarce, small, slow, weak, difficult, or easy-to-counter. You also want to have a world where characters can freely ignore heavy armor, which determines the sorts of classes or class-like concepts you introduce.
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Regarding dice/cards/whatever random element:
The right one to use generally comes down to granularity and frequency. A d20 is little more than a coin-flip unless there's a bunch of modifiers and crits involved. I personally like the idea of making every number on the roll meaningful, though that means limiting the number of options for sanity's sake.
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Regarding abilities:
I'm a big advocate for an Oomph system kind of like 4E psionics mixed with Legend's track system. Give characters some basic abilities and some power points and let them add some extra oomph to them until they wear themselves out.
Presumably some magical-type stuff might work fine without proximity to said batteries, perhaps allowing for a system where powers recharge more slowly away from a power core or something similar. Then you get the potentially-amusing effect of ship combat involving the characters using their fanciest abilities (or powered-up versions of their regular ones?) with an away-team mode where they're more constrained. The 4e parallel is DMs / encounters calibrated around the expectation that dailies are always available versus dungeon-crawling and endurance scenarios.
Further, and without going into detail: why not do away with the wealth / loot dichotomy and just treat magic as the de facto currency?
These smaller fragments are much less powerful, and are drained more easily, but are obviously easier to transport.
Treasure must be fed to the ship battery to bulk it back up to full size, which gives a bonus motive of always giving pirates a reason to plunder. Richer pirates have access to better magic.
This could also potentially lead well into two different battle modes where one is on an individual level and one is on a ship-wide level, which people seem to be pushing for.
The only downside I can see is that it centers all of a pirate ships escapades around their crystals.
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"Oh you guys are going to go without me? Well here have some potions of crazy wizard shit because of how useless you all are."
Well, who's to say the ships are the only place one can keep a crystal? You'd expect cities and whatnot to have them as well, which presumably is what pirates are after.
Otherwise this is the pretty much where my suggestion was meant to point.
If ships are batteries effective radius becomes a factor, but as Sir Fab said, presumably smaller crystals or whatever would be an option.
It also creates potential for crazy cool naval combat magic.
Edit: Yes Auralynx, I was thinking much the same. Ships are not the only places to have crystals.
Cities, rich lords, and ancient ruins would probably have large ones as well.
I know someone else said they wanted to search through ancient ruins for technomagic. I think the crystals could work well with that.
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One that covers your qi, luck, x-factor, grit, etc. This works as both your hit points and mana pool (for whatever magic system we lean towards).
Another that covers "momentum," e.g. how "on it" you are. This resets every scene. You can build momentum through descriptive narration on non-trivial actions (e.g. anything that would require a roll).
Well, at least in my conception, the ship / crystal / whatever is more akin to a resource pool that makes powers better rather than the thing that lets you use them at all, fwiw.
Perfectly viable option as well.
I was simply giving an idea about one way magic could work.
I understand that most people don't want godlike magic in this game and I agree with that.
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S'all good! I'm just keeping an eye out for story limitations and pitfalls.
You could have the crystals affect everyone equally...as a way to get amped. The fighters are typically dangerous, but can tap into the crystals in their weapons or armor to regenerate faster or move quicker, you know rare feats of superhuman stuff. Then you have some more scholarly types who have the crystals rigged into various apparatus to produce different effects like electricity or fire, which have a standard function but can be supercharged by the crystals. Then there's the support types who help everyone else out, plus a little added bonus of swapping resources around or granting bonus momentum.
This goes a little bit far from the idea of fighters being strictly fighters though. I just think if magic is science, then they should have some new weapons just like real soldiers would. A way to distinguish the actual spellcasters could be designing, setting, and creating the machines or artifacts that work with the crystals.
Also, I think the crystals should work like magic from Dark Sun, defiling the area around them or something similar if we want to keep it out of reach of smallfolk. They need very precise measurements of ley lines or even spirits lured into them, or you could ask a spirit to help you recharge it. Magic needs some danger and superstition involved, even if it's a science.
As a suggestion for magic-as-treasure, if crystals / orichalcum / whatever are used in nearly everything, presumably with a larger power source there would be some opportunity to recalibrate and reassign what things work for, too.
Arcane Crystals are raw energy in physical form. Without proper tools, they will burn, explode, and kill you if even experience spellcasters try to use them. However, using runes, made of wood, stone, or metal, along with objects like swords, armors, shields, pistols, ships, Magic can be safely moved from the crystal to the rune, which will change the property of the energy to create a spell. We could even say that no one can truly cast spells, that all "Magic" is controlled through runes. Runecasters (see what I did there!) are people who spend their lives studying and building tools and runes, trying to better their craft and create special tools, like the Caster Gauntlet*, to help use magic faster. Using Runes and Crystals is a science in and of itself. When it comes to Runes, size and material counts. Wood is usually a poor man's rune, crafted to work a few times. Each use will create the desired effect, but the wood will burn slowly each use until its gone. Stone works better for runes and most people who do use them use stone runes. Metal Runes are the best, strong metals like iron, or precious metals like gold or silver, can withstand the arcane pressures, but that's still if the size is right. If a rune is too big for a crystal, it will drain the crystal too fast. If a rune is too small, the rune won't be able to handle the pressure, causing the rune to crack, and soon explode. Because of this, all ships that run on crystal engines hire Runecasters to keep the engines running. Also, using multiple runes on a crystal at the same time could drain it faster too. Runecasters keep these things in mind when matching runes to crystals, especially on ships, when using multiple runes are commonplace.
Arcane crystals can recharge in three ways. Over time, as arcane energy is all around. Runecaster estimate that crystals regain 10% of their energy over the course of an hour. Another way is to "feed the beast" as captains call it. By throwing precious metals and jewels into the crystal, it can charge quickly. Captains do this only in cases of emergency. Ships with Crystal Engines are always targets of pirate because of this as each ship is allowed an "Emergency Fuel" locker, filled with gold and jewels. The last way of charging a crystal is bring it to an Arcane Well. Wells are created when two or more ley lines meet, causing the energy to explode from the earth. They can be underground, underwater, in jungles, on island. Most major cities are build around such a well. This is where Arcane Crystals come from as they grow around the wells. The massive energy around a well can keep a crystal fully charged even when being used constantly. Pirates always mark where they see mining ships so they can keep an eye out for Arcane Wells.
*The Caster Gauntlet is a special glove, sometimes made of leather but most of the time made of metal, that has a small crystal on the forearm and a disk with rune slots on the dorsum of the hand. Runecasters spin the disk so the rune they want to use is on the top of the disk and push the disk down to cause the rune to charge. Most casters also close their hands during the charge, but that's not necessary. Once the rune is charged, casters flick their fingers, causing the spell to be release from them.
1) Race
How will races be given/selected for this game?
Will it be the tried and cliche Tolkienesque races (Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Orc) that are prevalent in all fantasy games or will we be able to diversify it with much more exotic, original races?
Will races have their own racial bonuses?
Will there be penalties ala 3.5/Pathfinder?
Will/Should there be tension amongst these races, and if so, how will this be handled by the DM and the PCs?
Will there be favored classes for said races?
Can/Should PCs be awarded for staying in character when playing a favored lass of that race?
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2) Classes
How will classes be implemented?
Will it be based on the classic Tabletop classes (ie. Cleric, Mage, Thief and Warrior) with their own sets of rules on how to function?
And how will class progression work exactly?
Will it be based on 3.0/Pathfinder rules (where a player could only choose a prestige class once a number of requirements were met), 4th Ed rules (players choose a Paragon/Epic class once they reached the correct level) or a combination of both?
Or will PCs merely choose a Base class and choose specializations/feats after a select few levels?
Or for that matter, will/should stock classes even exist? Wouldn't PCs rather mix and match feats at character creation to make their own class as they see fit (like say a PC selects a number of pirate and warrior/fighter feats to create a swashbuckling corsair or select a number of wizard/mage feats alongside rogue feats to create their own version of an Arcane Trickster)?
Basically my tl;dr version on the above will be: How flexible will we allow Character Creation to be? How simple/complex will we make it? Would it be simple enough to get a group session started in less than an hour tops, or complex enough to offer players choices on what they would like to choose?
1) Race
How will races be given/selected for this game? So far we don't know. I'd like to say that players just pick them from the list of races available.
Will it be the tried and cliche Tolkienesque races (Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Orc) that are prevalent in all fantasy games or will we be able to diversify it with much more exotic, original races? I'll like to see both, with histories and ideas of these races updated to a 17th Century setting.
Will races have their own racial bonuses? Still in the air at the moment but I'd say they will, even if its not a straight up +/-2 to stat.
Will there be penalties ala 3.5/Pathfinder? Again, still in the air.
Will/Should there be tension amongst these races, and if so, how will this be handled by the DM and the PCs? Depends. Most of the story hasn't been fleshed out, but I could see rivalries existing between races, especially if some former "monster races" like Goblins and Orcs find their way to being among the civil races.
Will there be favored classes for said races? Don't know for now. I'd like there not to be.
Can/Should PCs be awarded for staying in character when playing a favored lass of that race? I'm assuming you mean class. That should be something between GMs and players.
2) Classes
How will classes be implemented? Currently in the air. Most of these questions are.
Will it be based on the classic Tabletop classes (ie. Cleric, Mage, Thief and Warrior) with their own sets of rules on how to function? I'd like to say yes and no, as with the Pirate theme, some things will be changed. Most people won't be running around in plate mail while sailing across an ocean, for example.
And how will class progression work exactly? CITA
Will it be based on 3.0/Pathfinder rules (where a player could only choose a prestige class once a number of requirements were met), 4th Ed rules (players choose a Paragon/Epic class once they reached the correct level) or a combination of both? CITA
Or will PCs merely choose a Base class and choose specializations/feats after a select few levels? CITA
Or for that matter, will/should stock classes even exist? Wouldn't PCs rather mix and match feats at character creation to make their own class as they see fit (like say a PC selects a number of pirate and warrior/fighter feats to create a swashbuckling corsair or select a number of wizard/mage feats alongside rogue feats to create their own version of an Arcane Trickster)? This I personally would like to see. That way you can truly play the kind of character you want to play. If say my rune idea above got used, I could see people mixing monk and runecaster together to become elemental benders like in Avatar:TLA/LoK style. The idea I have on this is each "class" as a talent tree and you buy talents to mix and match classes. Balancing would be an issue doing this, but Character Creation would have tons of choices and ways to match your character's background to your class and vise versa.
Basically my tl;dr version on the above will be: How flexible will we allow Character Creation to be? How simple/complex will we make it? Would it be simple enough to get a group session started in less than an hour tops, or complex enough to offer players choices on what they would like to choose? I'd like to see CC be simple but complex. In that it's easy to create a character with little experience in the system or roleplaying in general but complex enough that no two people will ever create the same character or argue about who's playing what class. That's my dream but since this is a group effort, we will have to see how we decide.
Right now we need to get our system locked in. So far I've heard mixed ideas about using d20. Some people hate it and want something else, others believe that it will make building this game easier.
So we have on the table d20 system and the Fudge system. I'd like to hear if anyone else had more ideas or if you rather have one or the other.
Other RP Systems at the bottom.
The thing is, with two unbalanced combatants, I'd like to see the dice reflect the disparity. With FUDGE, it seems no matter how many dice you roll against an opponent, your average is going to be whatever your skill level is, not your skill level plus a bonus because you're hitting someone who can't defend themselves, or minus a value because you're attacking a walking wall.
Instead, how about we use a FUDGEish system that just gives you dice based on your adjective or stat or pip pool for that attack or check, and then these dice only have two outcomes on them, + or nothing.
So if you're rolling against someone, you have your standard amount of dice that would give you your standard attack power, and then the enemy would roll dice representing their standard defense. If you roll more +s than your enemy, you hit and deal damage proportional to the number of +s. If you don't roll more then you deal no damage.
Similarly, during a skill check, you convert your skill level to the appropriate number of dice, roll those, and then see whether you roll enough +s to pass the check.
The only problem here is that combat would be skewed somewhat towards a defender, as a tie would mean 0 damage, assuming both the attack and defense roll off the same stat. You could make it so that you deal damage equal to the difference +1 to skew it the attacker's way I guess.
- Ardent's notion that channeling too much crystal power relative to X be dangerous. Possibly this is a function of statistics or classes?
- Crystals going into runaway reactions if too much power is generated at once or their attendant mechanisms aren't run right, as in nuclear reactors.
- Crystals, rather than serving as batteries, literally control ability access as with materia. Characters have to attune to crystals to use them in order to prevent rampant goodie-swapping, and may be absorbed after attunement. Stationary large crystals then become catalysts for potential power rather than sources that provide it outright.
- Abilities are learned and crystals are used to access fancier or larger-scale versions of them, as with psionic power points in 4e. Crystals should then probably be tiered rather than a pool of energy, allowing fancier ability enhancement in fancier forms rather.
- Characters can choose to gain permanent features created with magical energy but have a limited pool of lifeforce to do so with, as with Shadowrun's essence. Higher-essence characters are better at magic-magic. Think One Piece's devil fruits for the sort of permanent features involved.
- Having few or no abilities reliant on crystals also decreases the danger others' powers pose to you.
How will races be given/selected for this game?
I would assume there will be a list of races in the Player's Handbook.
Although I love stuff like Gamma World, I'm not a huge fan of random character creation.
Will it be the tried and cliche Tolkienesque races (Human/Dwarf/Elf/Halfling/Orc) that are prevalent in all fantasy games or will we be able to diversify it with much more exotic, original races?
Personally, I'm a little tired of Tolkien races but in space or Tolkien races in a steampunk world. I would like to see some new races come into play.
Will races have their own racial bonuses?
I would say absolutely. I think that races should always get bonuses to play because it gives people a real reason to play, say, a dwarf over an elf. I think removing racial bonuses homogenizes races into being a bit unmemorable.
Will there be penalties ala 3.5/Pathfinder?
I don't know. I could go either way, with my initial stand leaning towards no.
Will/Should there be tension amongst these races, and if so, how will this be handled by the DM and the PCs?
Tension between races exists so that there are stories you can tell with those tensions. I think there should be some tension between races. Obviously we don't want to encourage anti-party play, so we have to be careful with it.
Will there be favored classes for said races?
No, I don't really like that idea. However, like I said above, I do think that racial bonuses should exist, which would naturally cause players to lean certain races towards certain classes.
Can/Should PCs be awarded for staying in character when playing a favored class of that race?
House rules should determine this.
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2) Classes
How will classes be implemented?
I'm cautious about the very open-ended class ideas that people are having. I'm not a professional game designer myself, and I think it would be easiest to balance if we have a list of classes like D&D. If we want to try something else, I'll go for it, but maybe that could go in "Pirate Crystals 2.0" if that ever exists.
Will it be based on the classic Tabletop classes (ie. Cleric, Mage, Thief and Warrior) with their own sets of rules on how to function?
I think there's a reason that those core classes exist, from a design standpoint. That said, I think we should base our classes partly off of the classics, while still creating a couple new ideas of our own.
And how will class progression work exactly?
I would be interested in doing something other than levels, but I'm open to anything.
Will it be based on 3.0/Pathfinder rules (where a player could only choose a prestige class once a number of requirements were met), 4th Ed rules (players choose a Paragon/Epic class once they reached the correct level) or a combination of both?
I always sort of liked prestige classes, as long as the requirements weren't seriously convoluted and insane (and there were plenty like that), because it made me feel part of a small group of elite members.
Or will PCs merely choose a Base class and choose specializations/feats after a select few levels?
I don't know!
Or for that matter, will/should stock classes even exist? Wouldn't PCs rather mix and match feats at character creation to make their own class as they see fit (like say a PC selects a number of pirate and warrior/fighter feats to create a swashbuckling corsair or select a number of wizard/mage feats alongside rogue feats to create their own version of an Arcane Trickster)?
Like I said, this would be fun, but very challenging from a design perspective. It might be best to stick to actual classes for now.
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Choose one at character creation;
Tough Guy: You get an Awesome Point (AP) when you take damage.
Fast Guy: You get an AP whenever you move more than [insert distance unit] on your turn.
Blaster Guy: You get an AP whenever you hit more than one bad guy with an ability.
Obviously it doesn't have to be that simplistic, but that kind of out-of-the-box focusing mechanic can help channel players into roles without feeling like a straightjacket.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.