It is incredibly hard work to write an RPG, make no doubt about that. It takes love of the medium, knowledge and dedication to the games, imagination, technical skill, innovation, editing skills, layout skills, art direction, amongst other things. RPGs do not "just" happen. I mean look at how long Jason Buhlman and the rest of Paizo worked on Pathfinder before it released. Look how long D&D Next has been in development.
Even tweaking an exiting game like I'm doing with Unleashed is incredibly difficult. I'm taking my old house rules, which I've used here and there in various iterations of my play experience, and I'm attempting to weave them into an entirely new experience. Then I look back on the interaction of everything and conceptualize how that is going to affect everything else.
It's tough, but I feel it will be rewarding. I just need to get all the concepts in line, determine what effects these new rules have when working synergistically (new word?) in conjuction with the other rules. It's one thing to just change dice, and damn the consequences. It's another thing entirely to change the dice, then evaluate what effect that has on what you're accomplishing.
This is my inner gamer coming out, my game mastering style. The desire to bring back the old school feel, with modern rules, including some rules based upon indie titles. Fate points to me are far and above better than boring old hero points. With Fate based aspects, compels and complications make for a much cooler session. Alignment will be a Heroic Aspect, thus a Champion of Law and Good, will be compelled to think before he turns a blind eye to the prisoners being tortured.
When our Campaign Setting for this game is released also expect to see some race based class restrictions, not level limits per ce, more like Slow XP tables implemented for certain class/race combinations, Dwarf Wizard I'm looking at you. In fact, there may even be a super slow XP table implemented, for race/class combos at certain levels. It's just not very often you see a level 20 Half-Orc Paladin.
Stay tuned for more rules discussions,
I have the utmost respect for all Game Designers. And I'm Thankful for the decades of enjoyment Role-playing games have given me.
Even tweaking an exiting game like I'm doing with Unleashed is incredibly difficult. I'm taking my old house rules, which I've used here and there in various iterations of my play experience, and I'm attempting to weave them into an entirely new experience. Then I look back on the interaction of everything and conceptualize how that is going to affect everything else.
It's tough, but I feel it will be rewarding. I just need to get all the concepts in line, determine what effects these new rules have when working synergistically (new word?) in conjuction with the other rules. It's one thing to just change dice, and damn the consequences. It's another thing entirely to change the dice, then evaluate what effect that has on what you're accomplishing.
This is my inner gamer coming out, my game mastering style. The desire to bring back the old school feel, with modern rules, including some rules based upon indie titles. Fate points to me are far and above better than boring old hero points. With Fate based aspects, compels and complications make for a much cooler session. Alignment will be a Heroic Aspect, thus a Champion of Law and Good, will be compelled to think before he turns a blind eye to the prisoners being tortured.
When our Campaign Setting for this game is released also expect to see some race based class restrictions, not level limits per ce, more like Slow XP tables implemented for certain class/race combinations, Dwarf Wizard I'm looking at you. In fact, there may even be a super slow XP table implemented, for race/class combos at certain levels. It's just not very often you see a level 20 Half-Orc Paladin.
Stay tuned for more rules discussions,
I have the utmost respect for all Game Designers. And I'm Thankful for the decades of enjoyment Role-playing games have given me.
"It's just not very often you see a level 20 Half-Orc Paladin." - Isn't it because there are few Half-Orcs Paladins to begin with, much more than because they're not good at it? I never understand hard-coded restrictions like these, because they seem to forget the normal statistical (un)likeliness of the combinations they limit.
ReplyDeleteIt is an old concept, but it was based upon the wargaming, however, I like that it emulates certain races ability or inability to function in certain classes. A dwarf wizard, Dwarves weren't even allowed at all in 1e/2e due to their inherent magical resistance, it made sense. Halflings made poor fighters, thus I believe their class limit was 5. It's nostalgic, which to me is fun. Using slow XP tables, and Fast XP tables enables the ability to shape the world, without having to say less than 1% of the world population is under 4th level, which in turn undermines the ability for the world to grow with the characters, thus the reason many people feel the sweet spot of 3e/PFRPG is around level 6-8. It's fast, it still has challenges, and the rest of the world isn't falling behind.
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