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I normally don't create entire threads to discuss individual spell types, but in this case it's a spell I want to include but I think might be hard to balance due to the inherent power of this spell type.

There's a type of spell in my system called an elemental barrier. There's three versions, which are heat, cold and electric. When you cast one, you deal 1/2 caster level up to the caster level cap determined by spell level to every enemy that makes contact with you for the one minute duration, including those you attack hand to hand (hint). It also makes it so attacks of the other two elements are automatically diffused, removing their penetration and cutting their damage in half (before DR, no less) and automatically removes the critical effect of all three if they manage to critically hit. (Though it does not prevent attribute damage, and if better criticals is in use by your enemy it also does not impact the critical hit table.)

Now clearly, this is powerful. You become heavily resistant to two elements, and slightly resistant to a third that you also deal on contact. What's more, these three elements are the primary elements used by arcane casters. (Force is also used, but does much less damage.) So my issue is finding a way to balance these spells, without making them less powerful. The things I've come up with are making them not stack with eachother, or the physical barrier spells (which just deflects physical attacks, greatly weakening them), and prevent casting any spell of either of the blocked elements until the barrier wears off. In addition, its duration is quite short at only a single minute, and "contact" does not include attacks with weapons, so attacking an enemy with your weapon will not deal extra damage and if an enemy hits you with their weapon then only their weapon will be damaged by your barrier. In addition, they take 10 action points to cast, an entire turn for somebody with 10 agility. Only summoning spells take longer (20 or 40 action points) to cast. And, of course, spells provoke attacks of opportunity for every two action points used, enough that enemies can get up to 5 on you if they have that high of an allotment (which, thankfully, they usually only have 2-3, as 5 would take an agility of 20).

So this means leaving yourself wide open for several seconds. If you're in a melee, you might as well put on your tunic and head to the Theatre of Pompey, because it's the Ides of March for you. When you do use it, you'd better end the fight fast because it'll wear off in a minute, and you'll need to get out of range of your enemies to avoid being reduced to a pile of gore trying to recast it. And, of course, if your enemy has a good resistance to the element you chose, there's not much point to casting this spell. My question is if you think this is enough of a disadvantage, not enough or too much.

If you are going for universal, do you need to stat up multiple similiar weapons? Do your system mechanics need to distinguish a gladius, shortsword and gladius? The answer to that will make a huge difference on how to answer this.

Yes, I actually do. All of these are considerably different from eachother, even if they don't look it. The short sword, gladius and xiphos appear similar, but the gladius is specialized to the thrust, the xiphos to the swing, and the short sword is good for both. In addition, the gladius is less effective defensively while the xiphos has shorter reach, which counteract their greater overall offensive power.

If they are on the list, they are different from the other things on the list.

Also: Since this thread went up, I have swapped out "truncheon" for "burda", changed the name of "cudgel" to "war club", changed "mace" to "heavy mace", swapped out the old "heavy mace" for "morning star", changed "knife" to "fighting knife", moved "rapier" to "one hand light" and "smallsword" to "sidearm", and added "kukri", "shovel", "crowbar", "khopesh", "shotel" and six different weights each of "buckler", "small shield", "large shield", "tower shield" and "great shield".

Well, it isn't hard to think of possibilities when they're something like "Any warm object. Does not have to actually be warm, just feel warm. You must make direct skin contact with it, and cannot use your casting hand. ". Think for about a couple seconds.

You've got, like, six solutions by now, don't you? I could ask a kindergartener to meet this requirement, and they not only would probably find answers, they'd probably find MORE answers than the typical person. It doesn't require a degree in metaphysics, or on-site training as a mystic, to determine what objects might fill this requirement. It just requires a bit of thought to find the basic components, and with a bit of creativity can find you a way to meet this requirement more easily and reliably.

Okay, so in my system, just about every arcane spell has a focus component and many have material components. I've decided to make the casting components intentionally vague, so it's up to the players to figure out what they can use for a component.

I chose the vague components to allow them to use a wider variety of objects and make it so they can use something that fits the setting better, and can improvise casting components on the fly. This organic puzzle solving is a concept that I personally enjoy seeing, and I want my players to do it as much as possible. But more than that, it also encourages creativity and rewards intelligence and forethought, as the better they think out their components the better they'll work for them.

This isn't the case for all spell components, or even all focus and material components. Some are very specific, usually to create a cost for using the spell that can't be wriggled around, but the offensive spells all have vague components.

So, here's my question: How little detail do you think I can get away with using, and do I have to provide examples in the rulebook? I want to use as little detail as possible so they'll come up with more creative solutions, and I don't want to give examples if I don't have to because that runs the risk of them just using the examples and not thinking about it, but I also don't want them to be completely lost on what it is that qualifies as a component.

Of course some weapons might also be mostly the same but deal a different damage type, be incapable of some attacks, or not have as long of reach. But I figured the GM would probably be smart enough to figure those kinds of things out for themselves without a rule for it, right? I mean, a baseball bat is substitute heavy club, but it's a solid 30cm shorter, they should be able to notice that on their own. They should also be able to notice a screwdriver, a substitute for a small dagger, is a puncture weapon whereas a dagger is piercing, and that it can't swing or swipe since it doesn't have an edge.

Eh, I'll add a note to be safe.

So, I've been thinking about adding the option to use items and tools as improvised versions of weapons. Some of the weapons in my system are already improvised, such as the hatchet, machete, work hammer (a small carpentry hammer) and sledgehammer (a light one, with a 2kg head), but all of those are perfectly functional weapons with no issue being used in combat. That's not what this thread is about.

What this thread is about is BAD improvised weapons, ones that perform as inferior versions of other weapons. And since I can't write down every single possible item that could be used as an improvised weapon and write down their stats, I thought maybe I could write just a few rules and let the GM decide what implement will function as each, after listing a few examples. Here's what I've got.

Improvised weapons are items that aren't designed to be used as weapons and aren't listed on the weapon list, but can be used as weapons on the weapon list. These are usually inferior to the weapon they are being used as. There are a number of potential problems they might have, of which the GM is left to determine which would apply.

Unwieldy:
This item is heavy or badly balanced compared to the weapon it is taking the place of. These weapons do not get any bonus to attack, critical threat or guard saves from the user's ability scores, and cannot make jab, swipe or bash attacks or any form of attack of opportunity. They cause twice as much fatigue and have twice as high of a strain DC when used. Two examples of items that might be unwieldy are sledgehammers with heads significantly larger than the 2kg head used on the sledgehammer on the weapon list, (IE: One with a 4-5kg head), and a meat cleaver that otherwise would perform like a kukri or machete (depending on size).
;Translated, these weapons are inaccurate and imprecise no matter how strong or agile you are, are difficult to guard with, can't make light attacks and such can't attack fast enough to take advantage of an opening, and due to their weight are tiring and strenuous to use. It's also noteworthy that even dedicated weapons can be unwieldy if they are built for somebody a size larger than you, though you can use it as if it was a weapon type two categories larger (IE: a small creature could use a medium fighting knife as an improvised messer, or a medium shortsword as an improvised longsword), but if it's more than one size you'll need to move it up even more. (IE: A tiny creature using a medium shortsword would need to use it as an improvised zweihander, rather than a longsword.)

Unwieldable:
This item is beyond unwieldy. This weapon is either extremely heavy, or is both heavy and badly balanced. You can still use it, technically, but so poorly you're better off unarmed. These weapons suffer all the penalties of being unwieldy, and then some of their own. They take twice as long to attack as normal, provoke an attack of opportunity when used, cannot be used to guard and have both their fatigue and strain DC doubled again, now up to four times standard. The best example is a very large sledgehammer such as one with a 10kg head.
;Translated, using this item as a weapon is tantamount to suicide. They take really long to attack, and not only will you probably not hit and almost certainly not crit, you'll get hit for even trying (possibly with a bash, which inflicts a penalty and if it causes damage acts as an interrupt), and you can't defend yourself with it. You would, literally, be better off unarmed as at least your punches and kicks can connect. I would take a flail over anything with this designation, and flails don't even exist in this game because nobody in their right mind would use them. And this isn't even just improvised weapons, a dedicated weapon built for somebody two sizes larger than you, that you don't use as an if it was a weapon in a much larger weapon category, becomes unwieldable. (IE: A tiny creature trying to use a medium greatsword would find it unwieldable, since there isn't a higher category to step it up to, much less two to make it merely unwieldy, much less four to make it effective.)

Weak:
Some items that can be used as improvised versions of weapons are much weaker than the actual weapon they are being used as. As a result, they deal half damage and get half penetration on their attacks. Examples of this would be a chef's knife, which would otherwise perform as a fighting knife, or a baseball bat, which would otherwise perform as a heavy club.
;For examples of how bad this is, a fighting knife is normally a pretty effective weapon, dealing 7 piercing damage with 7 penetration in a thrust with 10 strength (8 damage with 9 penetration if you have 50 skill), but a chef's knife would only deal 3 damage with 3 penetration (4 damage with 4 penetration if you have 50 skill). A heavy club would normally deal 2d8+10 bludgeon damage (average 19) with 12 penetration in a two-handed swing with 10 strength, but a baseball bat only deals 1d8+5 (average 9.5) with 6 penetration.

Flimsy:
Some tools that can be used as improvised weapons are particularly fragile compared to an actual weapon. These items get half damage reduction and health. These weapons are also weak, as their flimsiness seriously interferes with their ability to deal damage. A good example of this would be a golf club, which would otherwise perform as a heavy mace. Any natural object you use as an improvised weapon is probably in this category, such as a stick you might try to use as a truncheon.
;This is so straight-forward I don't think I even need examples. A golf club, for instance, will probably be bent too far to be at all usable after a couple hard collisions with a human body and likely not inflict lethal damage in the process. And a stick is even worse, likely breaking in a single hit, inflicting fairly light damage, and needing to be immediately replaced. That's not saying you shouldn't use them if you get desperate, they're probably better than your bare hands on at least the first hit, but any actual weapon would be better, and it's unlikely you won't have a better option available if there's any option at all.

I get it. This is a dull topic and probably a stupid question. But since I'm a man in the modern US, I've never worn a skirt in my life and I know somebody here probably has, and might have some information for me.

Okay, so my RPG allows for both skirts and trousers for both sexes. As of the moment, the two have identical stats, and they might stay like that if I can't find anything, but I would like to make them meaningfully different without making one better than the other.

Here's three examples of each. But first, a quick explanation of terms.

Coverage: What parts of the body this counts as protecting. In this case, all of these apply only to the legs.
DR /--: General damage reduction, applies to all damage types.
DR (): Extra damage reduction against the damage types this apparel is strong against, stacks with general damage reduction. In this case, all of these are strong against cold, bludgeon and concussive damage.
Armour rating: This has a chance to deflect incoming attacks. All attacks that land between the target's defence and the sum of their defence and their armour rating are deflected. Deflected attacks have their penetration halved, and most damage types either lose half their damage, are unable to score critical hits or both. Apparel does not add armour rating against the damage types listed after the slash.
Armour check: A penalty to agility relative to the part in question.
Armour cap: The highest agility can be counted as, after armour check, on the part in question.
Health: How many hit points the apparel has. At 50%, apparel loses its armour rating. At 0%, it no longer provides any protection.
Somatic spell failure: The percentage chance added by this apparel to fail spells with somatic components. Stacks between all equipped items. All caster classes have an effect that reduces this.
Carry weight: The amount this apparel allows you to carry without equipping. You absolutely require clothing items to carry anything without equipping it. In this case, with just these your carry weight increments are 30% those of your equip load increments.
Weight: How much this adds to your equip load when equipped, and to your carry weight when carried unequipped.
Value: How much this item costs before mark-up. The mark up, however, tends to be enormous. Especially in places with fixed prices. The units are worth roughly $0.10 each.
Special: Something specific to this apparel. In this case, it's just a note reminding you that pants and skirts don't protect your feet.

And now, for three examples of each.

Fabric trousers:
Coverage: Legs
DR 0/--
DR 0(cold, bludgeon, concussive)
Armour rating: 10/Slashing, piercing, puncturing
Armour check: 0
Armour cap: 30
Health: 30
Somatic spell failure: 25%
Carry weight: +30%
Weight: 300g
Value: 6
Special: Does not protect the legs from damage originating from the ground.
A pair of light, soft trousers made of thin textile such as linen, cotton or wool.

Fabric skirt:
Coverage: Legs
DR 0/--
DR 0(cold, bludgeon, concussive)
Armour rating: 10/Slashing, piercing, puncturing
Armour check: 0
Armour cap: 30
Health: 30
Somatic spell failure: 25%
Weight: 300g
Value: 6
Special: Does not protect the legs from damage originating from the ground.
A light, soft skirt made of textile such as linen, cotton or wool.

Leather trousers:
Coverage: Legs
DR 2/--
DR 2(cold, bludgeon, concussive)
Armour rating: 10/Slashing, piercing, puncturing
Armour check: -2
Armour cap: 25
Health: 30
Somatic spell failure: 50%
Carry weight: +30%
Weight: 600g
Value: 12
Special: Does not protect the legs from damage originating from the ground.
A pair of leather trousers.

Leather skirt:
Coverage: Legs
DR 2/--
DR 2(cold, bludgeon, concussive)
Armour rating: 10/Slashing, piercing, puncturing
Armour check: -2
Armour cap: 25
Health: 30
Somatic spell failure: 50%
Weight: 600g
Value: 12
Special: Does not protect the legs from damage originating from the ground.
A skirt made out of leather.

Quilted trousers:
Coverage: Legs
DR 4/--
DR 4(cold, bludgeon, concussive)
Armour rating: 10/Slashing, piercing, puncturing
Armour check: -4
Armour cap: 20
Health: 30
Somatic spell failure: 75%
Carry weight: +30%
Weight: 1200g
Value: 18
Special: Does not protect the legs from damage originating from the ground.
The equivalent of a gambeson for the pants.

Quilted skirt:
Coverage: Legs
DR 4/--
DR 4(cold, bludgeon, concussive)
Armour rating: 10/Slashing, piercing, puncturing
Armour check: -4
Armour cap: 20
Health: 30
Somatic spell failure: 75%
Weight: 1200g
Value: 18
Special: Does not protect the legs from damage originating from the ground.
The quilted lower-body wear for men and women that don’t like trousers.

If the heavier weapons do greater damage, you're going to run into a problem.

The high-strength characters are already going to be doing a lot more damage just from being strong. If they are also using weapons that deal greater damage (which other characters can't use because they don't meet the prerequisites), strength characters will essentially be double-dipping on strength based damage benefits.

My guess is you'll end up with Barbarians suddenly leading the melee damage race by very large margins.

1. This is already accounted for with heavier weapons being inferior for and against guarding. This goes up to great weapons basically having a -10 to guard and the DC of guard saves against them. (Two hand heavy -8, two hand light -7, hand and a half -5, one hand heavy -4, one hand light -3, sidearm -1.) A typical person with an arming sword will have no issue parrying a greatsword (with an effective +6 against them), and if they get in close (the greatsword wielder has a substantial reach advantage they have to get past) the greatsword wielder will have a hard time parrying against them (effective -6).

But yeah, of course stronger characters with heavier weapons will do more damage. That's kinda the point of both heavier weapons and higher strength. Skill will also increase your weapon's power, and agility will make it more accurate, eventually attack faster, and more likely to land critical hits. (And, of course, it'll make you harder to hit as well.) Putting a lot of points into strength, but neglecting agility and perception (determines skill advancement, most important for complex weapons, not useful for simple weapons at all) isn't the best idea. Ideally, any combatant, be they primarily melee or ranged, will have a good mixture of strength, agility and perception.

So, I've been thinking about the ability of a character to use a particular weapon effectively in my game. Now, this game doesn't have "proficiencies", it uses a skill system, but that still lets everybody use a weapon regardless of their stats. We all know that if you give some people some weapons they will be unable to handle them, and some others may be able to handle them, but only with both hands. So, to handle this, here's what I came up with. I just want general feedback on this.

Strength requirement:
All sidearms have a strength requirement of 2 for a single hand, 1 for both hands.
All light one handed weapons have a strength requirement of 6 for a single hand, 3 for both hands.
All heavy one handed weapons have a strength requirement of 8 for a single hand, 4 for both hands.
All hand and a half weapons have a strength requirement of 10 for a single hand, 5 for both hands.
All light two handed weapons have a strength requirement of 21 for a single hand, 7 for both hands.
All heavy two handed weapons have a strength requirement of 32 for a single hand, 8 for both hands.
All great weapons have a strength requirement of 50 for a single hand, 10 for both hands.
Failing to meet a requirement gives up all benefit from the strength score to your weapon. This means a loss in attack, damage or penetration, critical threat and guard saves, removing accuracy, lethality and defensive power from your weapon. If you do not have at least half the requirement, you cannot use the weapon this way at all.

Agility requirement:
All simple weapons (clubs, maces and spears) have no agility requirement, intermediate weapons (axes, hammers, some blades) require 5 and complex weapons (swords, swords and swords) 10. If you fail to meet this requirement, you don't get any benefit from your agility for this weapon. That means losing the agility bonus to attack, critical threat and attack rate, making your weapon slower, less accurate and less lethal. There is no secondary point that prevents you from using the weapon at all, however, and no benefit from using both hands.

One hand and two hand definition:
This is a second thing. How do I make a one or two handed weapon function as one or two handed, without just claiming you can never even try to wield them the other way? And here's my answer: Two handed weapons are two handed in that their strength requirements shoot through the roof when you try to use them one handed, making it much less likely (for great weapons, almost impossible) to use them that way. One handed weapons lose agility when used with both hands, due to the lack of a grip, and sidearms also don't get as much strength. One handed heavy weapons lose half of their benefit from your agility when used two handed, one handed light weapons lose all of it, and sidearms also only get 1.5x strength instead of 2x.

So, that's it. Opinions?

It's occurred to me that since I have a few improvised weapons on the list (several of the axes, several of the hammers, the knife and the machete) there'd be no harm in adding a few more. Starting with a crowbar, obviously, because they're about the most effective improvised weapon there is. (Seriously. Heavy enough to make a good club, light enough to actually use, good leverage due to the claw, sturdier than many *dedicated* weapons, and the claw focuses the damage well while allowing it to both be a solid blunt and puncturing weapon.) Adding in a shovel would also be a good idea, as would be a meat cleaver and a straight razor. If anybody would like to pitch in, maybe suggest an item or two that makes a good improvised weapon, I'd be glad to add them.

The only conditions are that they can't just be an improvised version of a weapon already on the list (no baseball bat because it's just an improvised heavy club, and no metal pipe because it's just an improvised light mace or cudgel) and it has to actually be sturdy enough to work for more than two seconds without breaking (so no golf club or pool cue).

I have a fairly universal RPG coming up, and I'd like to ask what melee weapons and polearms people think I should include. Here's what I've got so far.

Sidearms:
Truncheon
Hatchet
Knife
Work hammer
Dagger
Combat knife
Tanto
Pugio
Throwing knife
Tecpatl

Light one-handers:
Light mace
War hatchet
Machete
Light hammer
Short sword
Cutlass
Smallsword
Wakizashi
Gladius
Xiphos
Javelin
Pilum
Tomahawk

One-handers:
Cudgel
War axe
Messer
Warhammer
Arming sword
Sabre
Rapier
Kodachi
Spatha
Kopis
Khopesh
Throwing spear (Note: This is specifically a larger throwing spear, like an assegai.)
Macuahuitl
Shotel

Hand and a half:
Mace
Short spear
Field axe
Kriegmesser
Battle hammer
Longsword
Scimitar
Katana
Quarterstaff (Note: Worst weapon in the entire game.)
Tepoztopilli

Light two-handers:
Heavy club
Battle axe
Maul
Claymore
Nodachi
Halberd
Naginata
Su Yari

Two-handers:
Heavy mace
Long spear
Heavy axe
Sledgehammer
Zweihander
Odachi
Glaive
Omi Yari

Great weapons:
Great club
Kanabo
Pike
Great axe
Great hammer
Greatsword
Zanbatou
Nagae Yari

Alright, I've been trying to get to some of the skills used in my unique system, Change. I managed to work out weapon and armour skills, the shield skills and a few others. Then I tried to handle the grappling system, and I realised that I am attempting to handle the system that in every other system is "that one rule". I'm going to ask for some help here before I write up another overly complicated nightmare of a grappling system, or a shallow piece of crap that doesn't do anything it needs to.

Grappling needs to:
Allow you to move, turn and manipulate your opponent, and prevent them from moving and turning.
Greatly weaken swinging attacks.
Allow you to increase your defence somewhere in there, as a good grappler uses it to prevent their opponent from hitting them, while reducing your ability to guard.
Disable/weaken the grappled part to some extent.
Be capable of inflicting damage, and that's locational.
Improve some special attacks meant to be used while grappling. (Headbutting, biting, swallowing for some species.)
Enable some attacks that can ONLY be used while grappling. (Slams and throws, mostly.)
Be resistible with the very same grapple skill.
Still be simple enough to use without frustrating yourself or making your GM and all the other players hate you.

Alright. I've been busy with other things in the system, but I decided to write up one for each real quick, and one universal creatures that can appear in all three. Nothing especially creative, but I'm doing this on the fly and the point is to give a good idea what kind of creatures there are in the game.

(For Duat, let's start with some vermin. A bronze scarab.)

Bronze scarab:
Bronze scarabs are giant scarab beetles found frequently in Duat, with shells of naturally occurring bronze. As a form of dung beetle they are not predatory, but this particular species is known to be territorial and while not usually seen attacking it will defend its territory or its food to the death against any invaders. However, this almost never leads to fatalities and rarely results in injury as they are slow, fairly weak, do not chase more than a couple meters and due to their bright orange colour and the foul smell of their nests and food are easy to avoid. They are usually hunted by small children, and are the most frequent competitors in insect fights. Bronze scarabs are roughly 50cm long, and weigh in at as much as 5kg.

Tiny vermin
d6 hit dice
Character grades: 2, 3, 1, 4.
+2 Str
-2 Per
-2 Cha
+4 Res
+4 Natural armour
DR 4 (Kinetic)/Bludgeon, concussive
Flight: Bronze scarabs have an extremely limited flight ability. Unlike their smaller brethren they are too heavy to stay aloft and can only fly very short distances. Scarabs can up to double their jump distance and height in exchange for an extra 5 fatigue per meter.
Does not have hands and cannot use tools or make guard saves.
Bite attacks deal bludgeon damage.
All attacks provoke attacks of opportunity.
Non-sentient, non-sapient, non-reasoning, does not have skill points, cannot gain experience, has no class levels and cannot use any objects.
No sex modifiers.
Head has 3HD, +4 innate and active defence
Body has 5HD
Legs have 1HD, +8 innate and active defence
25% experience value (5/grade)

Bronze scarabs are the absolute bottom rung of adventurer enemies in Duat. Like giant rats, but dumber and less likely to swarm or take you by surprise. They are unlikely to ever land a hit, and just trying provokes an attack of opportunity that is likely to maim them severely. They are surprisingly resistant to edged weapons, but not blunt weapons, and the Mk. 1 foot usually kills them in a single shot, sometimes instantly.

(For Anineyah, let's try something with a hand. An Ahuizotl.)

Ahuizotl:
Ahuizotl are small monsters found occasionally throughout the tropical reaches of Anineyah. They resemble a quilled dog, with the forepaws of a racoon and a long prehensile tail ending in a five-fingered hand. They are rare, and wait for their prey in rivers and lakes under the water, reaching out and grabbing their prey, trying to drag them underwater to drown them. They're half the reason citizens of the great city-states are required to carry a weapon at all times, in order to sever their tails and flee for the surface if they attack, although actual ahuizotl attacks happen less than a dozen times each year and most "ahuizotl attacks" are just murders. Ahuizotl are roughly 1m long, and weigh roughly 40kg.

Small animal
d8 hit dice
Character grades: 4, 5, 2, 6, 1, 7
Strength +2
Agility +2
Constitution -2
Perception +2
Charisma -2
Resolve -2
Tail arm: Ahuizotl have a single hand on the end of their tail. This hand allows them to grapple or strike with double reach against enemies behind them, or normal reach against enemies in front of them. Their strikes to not provoke attacks of opportunity, even though every other attack of theirs does.
Spines: Touching an ahuizotl deals a single point of piercing damage. This is also added to all of their attacks.
Waterbreathing: Ahuizotl can breathe underwater and do not need to make breath checks.
DR 2 (Kinetic, energy)/Silver
+2 to reflex and fortitude saves, -4 to guard saves.
Bite attacks get +2 attack, penetration and damage.
Kick attacks get -4 attack, -2 penetration and damage and provoke.
Paws: An ahuizotl's paws may be used as swipe-only swinging weapons, dealing 0 bludgeon damage with -10 attack. Receives only strength and agility modifiers to attack, rather than full scores. This attack has half normal reach.
All attacks provoke attacks of opportunity, except for fist strikes.
-50% experience gain.
Sentient, sapient, non-reasoning, does not receive perception or age modifiers to skill point gains, does not receive weapon or apparel skill, and cannot use wands, staves or scrolls.
Default sex modifiers.
Head has 3HD, +6 innate and active defence
Torso has 5HD
Anterior legs have 1HD, +4 innate and active defence
Posterior legs have 2HD, +2 innate and active defence
Tail has 1HD, +10 innate and active defence from the front, +6 from behind and +2 from the side
50% experience value.

Dangerous in that they tend to take players by surprise. In a direct confrontation, they are universally inferior to all player races and WILL die. They can be easily classified under "demonic spiders", as their sudden surprise attacks allow them to do more damage than a weakling creature like them should be able to deal and their experience value isn't good enough to be worth anything if they aren't quest-related.

(For Mayta, let's try something seriously dangerous. A Mayta raptor.)

Mayta raptor:
Mayta raptors are large, bipedal feathered reptiles found hunting in packs throughout Mayta. They are some of Mayta's most dangerous creatures, not due to raw power as many other creatures are much larger and stronger, but due to being large enough to overpower a sapient but small enough to get around in the regions sapients usually live. To make matters worse, Mayta raptors are fast, clever, nocturnal, darkly coloured, naturally camouflaged and hunt in pairs. Their pair groups are usually tightly bonded, each will rush to the other's defence and is likely to lose control if the other is killed. Mayta raptors are roughly 6m long and 2m tall, weighing in at 500kg.

Large reptile
d8 hit dice
Character grade: 5, 6, 4, 7, 3, 8, 2, 9, 1, 10
Strength +4
Constitution -4
Charisma -4
Resolve +4
+1 base move rate
+4 natural armour
Claws: Mayta raptors have claws and can make claw attacks.
Sickle claws: Mayta raptor foot attacks deal primarily piercing damage instead of bludgeoning damage.
+4 stealth
Low-light vision
Tail: Mayta raptors may use their tail to attack creatures behind them. This is treated as a tentacle swing.
All attacks other than claw and tail attacks provoke attacks of opportunity.
Sentient, sapient, non-reasoning, does not receive perception or age modifiers to skill point gains, does not receive weapon or apparel skill, and cannot use wands, staves or scrolls.
-50% experience gain
Default sex modifiers.
Head has 3HD, +6 innate and active defence
Torso has 5HD
Arms have 1HD, +4 innate and active defence
Legs have 2HD, +2 innate and active defence
Tail has 3HD, +10 innate and active defence from the front, +6 from behind and +2 from the side
100% experience value.

Mayta raptors are DANGEROUS. They hunt in pairs, and each of them in the pair is a fast, powerful and can hold up to an impressive amount of punishment. They do, however, provoke attacks of opportunity with all their attacks other than the claw attacks they make with those feathery forearms, and those claw attacks are their weakest attacks. Don't forget how low Mayta's tech base is, and don't drop these on low level players.

(And finally, for a nice universal creature, a wolf.)

Wolf:
Wolves are predatory animals prevalent in all realms. They are canid animals with grey fur ranging from almost white to almost black. While they are fairly rare in more advanced realms, (excluding Alfheim, where they are most common) they are very common in more primitive realms. While individually weak and frails, at least compared to humanoids, and very poor combatants by all accounts, their numbers can make them dangerous to most species and on the rare occasion they prey on sapients they prey on the very sick, very old and very young. As a result of these factors, they are often considered to be much more dangerous than they actually are, and tend to be killed on sight. (Very easily, which for some reason doesn't raise any questions about the threat they actually post.) Wolves normally stand 70-90cm tall, 140-160cm long and weigh 30-40kg, with 80cm, 150cm and 35kg being common.

Small Animal
d8 hit dice
Character grades: 3, 4, 2, 5, 1, 6.
+2 Agl
-2 Con
+2 Per
-2 Cha
+2 Res
+1 Base move rate
+4 Listen
+10 Search
-10 Climb
+2 to reflex and fortitude saves, -2 to will saves, additional -2 against charm effects.
Does not have hands and cannot use tools or make guard saves.
Bite attacks get +2 attack, penetration and damage.
Kick attacks get -4 attack, -2 penetration and damage.
Paws: A wolf's paws may be used as swipe-only swinging weapons, dealing 0 bludgeon damage with -10 attack. Receives only strength and agility modifiers to attack, rather than full scores. This attack has half normal reach.
All attacks provoke attacks of opportunity.
-50% experience gain.
Sentient, sapient, non-reasoning, does not receive perception or age modifiers to skill point gains, does not receive weapon or apparel skill, and cannot use wands, staves or scrolls.
Default sex modifiers.
Head has 3HD, +6 innate and active defence
Torso has 5HD
Anterior legs have 1HD, +4 innate and active defence
Posterior legs have 2HD, +2 innate and active defence
Tail has 1HD, +10 innate and active defence from the front, +6 from behind and +2 from the side
25% experience value.

Wolves are a bottom-rung creature, like the bronze scarab or a giant rat. They almost never pose a threat to an adventurer by themselves, usually having to group up to have any chance of landing a hit.

(And let's have a human for comparison.)

Human:
Humans are the dominant inhabitants of Midgard, and the most common species throughout the realms. They are humanoids and are medium sized as adults, with extremely thin and sparse coats that often fail to cover large portions of their bodies. Common human hair colour includes brown, grey, yellow, orange and red. Skin tone is usually a shade of brown, ranging from light tan to almost black, and human eye colour is normally brown, blue or green. With the change, many humans have developed unusual colouration in skin, hair and eyes, although most are still “normal.” Humans learn quickly, possess great stamina and are naturally adept at both killing and survival. Human adults average 180cm and 80kg. (Yes, I know that's larger than in the real world.)

Medium humanoid
d10 hit dice
Character grade: 5, 6, 4, 7, 3, 8, 2, 9, 1, 10
Favoured enemy – At fourth level and every fourth thereafter, humans may select a creature type to receive +1 to critical threat against. These can be stacked onto each other for greater bonuses, but cannot exceed +5.
+1 Skill points per level
+2 to all saving throws
+4 to constitution checks
Default sex modifiers
Head has 3HD, +6 innate and active defence
Torso has 5HD
Arms (arms) have 1HD, +4 innate and active defence
Legs (legs) have 2HD, +2 innate and active defence

Humans are a good, strong player race. They are hardy survivors, natural-born killers and fast learners with great stamina. They don't have many exotic abilities, but they are still quite strong and versatile, and their frequent critical hits against their favoured enemies make them excellent combatants.

(There are also template creatures, which are applied to another creature to create a new creature. For example, the common zombie.)

Zombie:
A zombie is a dead person’s corpse reanimated by a necromancer using the 4th level spell “reanimate” on a decaying corpse. They are considerably less impotent than risen corpses, and tend to be rotting with mostly green and grey-black flesh.

Lesser undead
D4 hit dice
-2 Agility, constitution, perception and resolve
DR 3 (Bludgeoning, puncture, concussive)/Silver
Half movement speed
-40% experience gain
60% experience value

Zombies are fairly weak low-level undead, but they are intelligent, wield weapons and armour and work in groups in a way seldom seen from zombies in other media. Since zombies do not have a health score, they are not vulnerable to bleed. However, zombies have very low part integrity and are easily killed.

(Alright. That ought to be enough examples for now.)

You mean Duat, right?

I've got my own RPG system now, took a long time. It can be found here. Go ahead, take a look, the rulebook's nice and short at 22 pages. And to those familiar with my previous threads, yes, this is the same system. It's changed a lot, no pun intended, and it's DONE! But there's a problem. It's just the core rules that are done, and I have almost no content. That's not the content book, of course, but even the content book is pretty sparse. (Only 87 pages... A content book should be a couple hundred.)

So, I was going to try a brainstorming thread for anybody willing to participate, with particular emphasis on creatures. I'm trying to get a campaign ready for this site, so add anything you'd like to see in a campaign. And anything you'd really rather I only used on players that aren't you.

A few quick notes:
Some amount of physical plausibility would be required. This is a fantasy, sure, but the laws of physics still apply.
100% immunity to any form of physical damage is impossible.
Be careful about making something immune to fatigue, that can be game breaking.
Sanity damage is totally a mechanic here.

Since I'm driving for a campaign, I'll also let you guys pick the setting for the campaign, since that's what we're going to have to focus on. Keep in mind, that's also the setting that'll need the most attention. Of course, some nice, universal creatures are also appreciated.

I want to start at the bottom of the technological ladder, easier that way, so here's the three options:

Duat: (Negligible conventional tech base)
The Egyptian world of death. The Egyptian gods rule over the vast necropolis and sprawling cities of Duat, constantly competing with eachother while dealing with insurrections by the death lords and their supporters. A bronze age fantasy setting loaded with supposed “allies” covertly trying to overthrow one another, and rebels trying to overthrow them all.

Anineyah: (Negligible magical tech base)
The Mesoamerican realm of death. The empires around Anineyah’s equator, ruled by various Mesoamerican gods, wage perpetual wars of conquest on one another, while trying to spread north and south out of the tropics. Their vast influence reaches far up into the temperate regions, but no farther. A magitek stone age setting where imperialists are constantly invading into tribal lands, the tribals and death lords never pushing them back quite as much as they push forward.

Mayta: (Negligible biological tech base)
The independent world of death. A chaotic realm with no central leadership and few major factions. A bizarre realm, with large stretches inhabited by colossal reptilian beasts, but many other stretches inhabited by hunter-gatherers and primitive agricultural settlements. (Though, surprisingly, there’s no shortage of food.) The only real faction of note are the death lords, and even they can’t keep a firm grip on a land with creatures of this sort. A biotech stone age fantasy setting with a hostile environment and dangerous beasts.

These are all realms of death. That means the first campaign will be pretty forgiving, but the low tech base means the creatures probably shouldn't be too strong either.

Nice die roller. But if he doesn't go for that with any future enormous rolls, thankfully it seems doubtful he'll encounter 100d3 again, I'll go for one of the others.

So how'd you handle it in D&D when you could be expected to roll 40d6 because of a disintegrate spell? My system's hardly the first to have occasional enormous die rolls, and I can't see rolling a d6 forty times any more than I can see rolling a d3 one hundred times, and that 22-40d6 came up a lot more often.

When you do multiple die rolls, are you supposed to roll each die individually? My groups have always just rolled a single die and multipled by the number of dice we're supposed to roll, but I've recently had somebody act as if that idea had never come up in any of their gaming groups and it was downright blasphemous.

EDIT:
Specifically, it was a sanity damage roll in our own system. The call was for 100d3. And it's pretty silly to roll a d3 100 times. And no, it's not usually that high.

HUGE delay. My daughter fell on my laptop and I had to get a new computer. It took a while in my financial situation. I lost all my files, and had to redownload Change from mediafire, where it was so far out of date it seems completely alien. I am presently without Microsoft Office, and I don't have Adobe Acrobat either, so all I can do is read it. I lost half a dozen changes that I have to restore once I get a FREE program that can edit it, and I have over a dozen left to do. Then I have to get enough content for a campaign and... yeah. It'll be at least three months before anyone plays it. At LEAST. And before, I just had a few minor changes and the content to do. If this hadn't happened, I'd be *maybe* a month from playing a campaign.

Between the two books, about 150 pages of (mostly) size 10 Times New Roman. For how far, don't know. Somewhere between 25% and 50%, depending on how much content I need to call it done.

I'd like to quickly add to the things I need help with "Coming up with names for things.", for example the names of the bard mantras and poems. (I've only named one of each.)

Oh. Well, good. Certainly seems like you've got the vast majority of the work done then. Sounds like you've given them plenty of thought and planning too, considering short and long campaigns, fast and slower paced ones.

Well, it's just the classes and player species (save one) that are done. I haven't made much progress elsewhere.

It seems like you've got all the main stuff done, so, in regards to what you need help with, what exactly are you looking for? So that those who read and are interested in helping know where to focus. You said up-thread "spells, feats, minor mechanics, creatures, weapons, equipment, that kind of thing". What do you have so far? Are you trying to keep away from too strong a D&D feel? Importing classic things from other systems can quicken things, but may take from the originality. Are there any thematic restrictions or flavours that others should be aware of?

I can make it non-D&D enough, and in fact already have. When we're talking about a game where the typical NPC starts with 200hp, (health is barely impacted by hits when they first happen, only bleed is effective against health) and with their body parts having 12-60hp (immediate damage is mostly aimed at breaking body parts) and does 10-30 damage in melee, that should make it feel far enough away from D&D that they'll get the message. When their character's health doesn't increase as they level, (unless they put points into constitution) and especially isn't multiplied by their level, that'll finish off any D&D comparisons. (I hope.)

As far as importing things, that's totally fine. I don't really care as long as it's not copyrighted. I can give an original spin on just about anything if I feel it's too direct of a port, and the system was designed to allow porting from everything under the sun. In fact, the list of things I have ported at least one thing in from (on the other thread) is very long. The system is original and so is the setting, and I'm confident that allowing other things into it and taking a few good things from other places won't hurt that.

So, offensively, they aim to fill different niches. Magic as utility / multi-target, tech as spike. Good to know.

That's one way to look at it, but another thing they can do is create openings for melee attackers. See, melee is extremely powerful but dangerous to attempt and lacking in range, so many enemies are defended against one way or another. Long reach, flight, speed, a positional advantage, so on. So casters can help melee find a way around that. They can cast spells that do things like weaken enemies so melee attackers can get through their reach intact (withering, weakness), ground flying enemies so melee attackers can reach them (burden, anchor, grounding) or let the melee attackers fly (levitation, bounding), slow down fleeing enemies (burden, anchor, slow), let melee attackers progress through ranged attacks (any defensive spell helps) or teleport them to the target (teleport, obviously), or speed them up (haste, marathon). These support abilities allow melee attackers to use their melee attacks when they couldn't otherwise, and since melee is so very powerful that's an important role.

Rituals seem mainly focused around supporting / enhancing more immediate magic then. Would that be accurate? Or just the specific examples you chose there?

Well, weather control is an offensive ritual. Weather spells are frequently damaging in nature. The issue is the prep time, that particular ritual taking a 24-hour period. (It's an especially long ritual, though. Most rituals are only one hour.) So they'd be used to, say, run off an attacking army with acid rain, a lighting storm, blizzard, tornado or somesuch. (Or to attack a city/fortress with something similar, if you're stealthy and can prepare the ritual close enough to work without being detected. But the one-day prep time and the 1km range make that difficult. Especially since only shamans can cast weather spells at all.)

Seems like ability scores go high enough then. What are the ranges? Min, max, average? I get with 20 races that could vary greatly, so, by human, for a baseline. That rule seems to strongly favour the big, heavy weapons. Are there modifiers for the smaller, quicker, rapid fire weapons as well?

It depends on how many points you're given. The numbers GMs are recommended to use for points are 72, 84 and 96, but they're allowed as low as 60 or as high as 108. (Technically, you can do whatever, but I figure if I say DON'T DO THIS they won't do much beyond it.) Those mean averages of 12-16 recommended, 10-18 allowed. Minimums are always 0.5x average, maximum 1.5x average. So the maximums will range from 15-27, usually 18-24, and then you add your level. "Low level" generally translates to 1-5, so the ~20 guesstimate would be a bit low if it wasn't for the way martial artists require both constitution and resolve.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. As I say, the mods are the staff of Paizo, so generally friendly, customer focused folks. Of course, I can understand not wanting to rock the boat either. zylphryx's suggestion seems to fit the bill. Not everyone uses a RSS though (I don't) so not a solution for everyone.

I have one on Chrome. It works fine. Apparently it takes about ten minutes, but that's about it.

Long story. Short version is that it's named after an event from the first setting to be added. ("The Change", where Midgard bevame part of Ginnungagap. Wandel, the universe's child god, was also named after this event.)

Quite a lot of options. That's really cool, but does increase the creation load. Are you hoping the classes to be balanced? There's always a lot of talk about balance bringing homogeneousness, but I feel things can be balanced while still bringing their own individuals flavours to the table. I dislike the idea of trap options. 20 is a lot of classes, my only concern is ending up with "class X is class Y but better. People with system mastery never pick class Y, because X does it all and then some." But that level of choice is very nice, to be sure.

The classes are actually done. I need to make one big change to all of them, since I changed one major system a bit ago. As for balance, yeah I expect them to be balanced. There are a few that simply won't work in some campaigns, (like taking levels as an artisan may well be a waste of experience if you can't make anything in that campaign, and taking savant levels in a short campaign is also a waste of experience) but they all have a good purpose and they can all at least pull their weight outside of their ideal circumstances. And if you'd believe it, most of the choices are entirely unique within the system, and those that fill the same role have big enough benefits and drawbacks to play differently. (Like the rogue and scout. Scouts are more mobile and better combatants, but get far inferior sneak attacks.)

Oh, I didn't mean it had to be in competition. Poor phrasing on my part. Just wondering how they measured up. Clarifying it in my own mind. Of course, if everyone has magic and it manifests in different ways, that would be how it works. I definitely like the idea.

And that's how it is, so that's how it's designed. And as for how offensive spells fair against weapons, which is the standard comparison, it depends on circumstance. Weapons are almost always superior against a single target. By a lot. Spells, on the other hand, tend to have better special effects and outperform weapons against multiple targets. Spellcasters also have the advantage, important in high-tech settings, of casting support spells that enhance their allies or debuff their enemies, and not having to carry a physical object to use their magic.

Good plan. The more possible inputs, the better.

I guess. Except I'm sure that now this thread is the only one that'll get responses, since it's in the same section.

Ah, so from memory then, it doesn't need physical recording. That's a nice change. Scrolls and wands/staves sound much the same, which is good, I like the flavour of them. The material components makes sense, and the removal of god spells can only be a good thing. When it comes to ritual magic, can people work together to make a ritual more powerful? If a long ritual is started and targeted against a particular person, do they know they're on a time limit, as it were? Or are rituals offensive? Is there magic that can reach between planets, or would one need to travel to another planet to affect people there with their magic?

Ritual spells vary pretty heavily. Most are local effects, and the most common is the permanency ritual for summon spells. There are offensive rituals, but these don't have much longer of a range than regular offensive spells, and their long prep time means you need to have them ready in advance so they're usually used defensively. A good example of that is the weather control ritual, used with weather spells to increase their radius and duration. Another is the mind control ritual, used with emotion spells to increase their range/radius and duration.

Ah, okay. I get you now. Are the songs low power or high fatigue? Or are there enough to have a little column A, little column B? Or, is the aim for there to be enough for both, and the mix in-between, and they're just not made yet?

Another "little from column A, little from column B" situation. Their power is charisma-based, but there are different grades. Low-level ones are cheap but low power, high-level ones are expensive but high power.

Ha! Sorry. Local phrase. Just means, gotcha. I understand. Sounds reasonable/good. :)

Right, just never heard it said like that before.

Yeah, that kinda thing. Sounds good. I'm guessing save DC's must get pretty high, to give a +4 to saving throws? Or would a 1 ki per turn be a high cost? I know you said fatigue would go by 100 for a -1, so I wasn't sure how high you'd hope other pools to go.

Your ki total is equal to your constitution plus martial artist level. When you start, expect ~20 for most low-level PCs. The guard DC is your opponent's attack roll, with a DC bonus based on their weapon's weight if melee and their weapon's velocity if ranged. (+1 for each kilogram for melee or fifty metres per second for ranged. A heavy enough melee weapon or fast enough projectile and it's impossible to guard against.)

Definitely a good thing to do. Having a structure to it is good, in case of GM-pets. :P A solid setting which people can invest themselves in helps for this kind of thing too. Though that'll be limited by the GM relating the story as much as by the story itself.

Right. And the first campaigns will be run by somebody with an extremely intimate understanding of the system. Specifically me. Hopefully my example and the content I create on the fly for it will help any future GMs out.

Good, good. Getting messed up having actual consequences is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

Same here. And in a game like this, where a sword can lop an arm off without much issue, you can get messed up really fast.

Hey, as I said, maybe post in the Website Feedback forum asking about it, to be sure. They're pretty friendly and active, far as I can tell, so they'll clear it up one way or the other. And if they think it's a good idea and it's not in yet, they may even consider implementing it. They're receptive to their users. :)

I'm not going to rock the boat on my first day. Just seems like a bad idea in general.

I just noticed that. How odd. I suppose they felt it did belong in the Other RPG section, and didn't notice that you'd already posted there. Well, hopefully, if this is the right section for this, you'll get more feedback now too. You can always delete the other one. Or ask a mod to.

Well, I can only hope. I'll keep them both up, for the sake of redundancy.

You can subscribe to a thread and you will get notices through whatever RSS Reader you use. The RSS link is at the top right of the thread.

Alright. I'll see to that, I guess.

So I have to ask, is this a personal project done simply for grins or are you hoping to turn around and sell the end result?

I'm making it because I want to play it. Simple as that. (Although having the system handy for other purposes later is also nice. My friend Jeremy wants to make video games, this isn't a bad system for that either.)

Also, I'm not the only one invested in this, just the one the most invested. My best friend and by daughter are also both involved in it. My daughter made a lot of the player races and templates, my friend made a lot of the rules. I did everything else, though, including the setting.

Gotcha, gotcha. So, how many classes do you have in mind? Will item crafting be a thing? Other races? Will creatures have "classes" or their own type of magic? Are there psionics? Is there psionic/magic transparency, i.e. magic affecting things also affects psionics? Is sufficiently high level tech to balance with magic, or will magic always trump tech?

There are twenty classes. Crafting is a thing and there's an entire class, the artisan, built around various forms of crafting, although it's just better at crafting, you don't need to be an artisan to craft. There's 20 playable species, but I haven't written one of them out yet. Creatures have classes, but their classes are based on their mental faculties. After all, classes are personality powers. So only reasoning creatures perform normally. Non-reasoning creatures are impaired, non-sapient creatures can only ever get one level because they can't learn, and non-sentient creatures don't have levels at all. There are no dedicated psionics, per se, but mental magic is built into standard casting and some creatures have inherent psionic abilities. (None of those are playable, though.) As for magic vs. technology, why does it have to be in competition? They're not contradictory at all. Magic also isn't allmighty, or even anything special, and technology provides benefits for casters just like it provides for combatants.

I'm no game maker / mechanics master, but I will ask questions and help where I can. :)

Okay. So you know, I've posted my first (fairly short) post on the system in "Other RPGs".

So, kinda how D&D does it then?

Kinda, yeah.

Okay. So, how do Arcane casters record their spells known? Is there a physical medium for it at all, or all mental/memory? Are scrolls/wands/potions/staffs a thing? Will any spells have expensive material components, such as the diamond dust required for Wish in D&D? If so, can they be skipped with that feat?

They don't need to record it. They might decide to write down what they know, but they don't *need* to. Scrolls are a thing, a cheap single cast of a spell they can use easily. Wands and staves are used to cast spells of a particular level, but they are expensive to produce and recharge and only hold so many charges. All material components and focuses are roughly the same expense at the same spell level, and usually are the same if from the same spell list, element and level. Sometimes spells of different levels even share a material component and just use different amounts, like the various arcane fire spells all require alcohol. And there's no god spells, but rituals require expensive ritual components, take a long time to perform, and since the ritual requires the components and the spell is part of the ritual, not the other way around, the feat doesn't impact the added components of the ritual, just the spell itself.

Makes sense. Maybe more like the Warlock? Even fewer spells than a D&D Sorcerer, but infinite casting of those spells.

No, not really. The only caster able to use any ability infinitely is the bard, not for spells, and their songs, poems and mantras can be used infinitely because they barely require any magic to function, so the fatigue build can cover it.

Grand so.

Pardon?

Spot on. So, kinda like committed mana to sustain an effect then? In works in video games, I don't see why it couldn't work in tabletop too.

Basically. Like the "unbreakable defence" ability some martial artists can choose gives a +4 to guard saving throws for each point of ki invested, per turn. (The guard save is blocking and deflecting of targeted attacks.)

Oh, cool. Quite a few GM dependent bonuses. Which can work fine.

Yeah, if the GM wants to bother and knows what they're doing. Which is why I'm hoping to make a good number of built-ins to point them the right way.

Ah, wonderful. That was something that put me off trying D&D for some time. "1HP is the same as full HP? How silly."

Here, we move in smaller increments. Every 25% of your health or 50% of your body part integrity incurs a penalty. (And it's not a small penalty, let me tell you.)

You can't, as far as I'm aware. Maybe a post in the Website Feedback forum would be best though, to be sure?

Well, that sucks. That really, really sucks.

Wait, this thread just got moved. Now I have two threads is "Other RPGs". That just feels superfluous.

I've been making a new tabletop RPG for a while now. The system is meant to do a lot of things and have a lot of settings, while using completely unique mechanics and incorporating aspects and ideas of other franchises.

This game comes with its own universe, and (so far) thirteen different worlds within it. (More to come, of course.) These vary in climate, technology and wildlife, but use the same system and have a number of universal aspects. These settings are rated based on their tech level from 0 to 5, and primary tech type of conventional, magic or biological. (Biotech is massively under-represented so far.)

The game so far has a solid set of core mechanics that, while not finished, are shaping up quite well. However, one of Change's intended main features is a massive number of minor fringe mechanics and its incorporation of bits and pieces of other franchises into its mechanics, content or both. Including inspirations from Reality, Dungeons and Dragons, The Elder Scrolls, Tolkein's Legendarium, Star Wars, Halo, Half-Life, Fallout, Command and Conquer, Star Craft, old-school shooter mechanics, Final Fantasy, Dragonball, Bleach, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Cthulu Mythos, Norse Mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, Egyptian mythology, Mayan mythology, Japanese mythology, Abrahamic mythologies, conspiracy theories and more. Part of the appeal is supposed to be the sheer variety of available mechanics to experiment with, and eventually present in the game's creatures and factions.

Hmm, it does seem like you have quite a bit done. When you say content, do you mean spells, abilities, and minor mechanics, or do you mean the system setting? The history, civilizations, and politics of the world(s) the system is based in?

I mean spells, feats, minor mechanics, creatures, weapons, equipment, that kind of thing. I'll handle the settings entirely on my own, and I've got a whole 13 worlds already. (Not necessarily in that great of detail, but one thing at a time.)

Sounds likes good stuff. For the spells, how do you gain new spells? Are there levels, and you get X spells per level? Or is there a downtime / cost investment? Both?

Depends. Those that use divine magic know all possible spells of their level automatically. Arcane casters learn a certain number each level, and two of them (mages and wizards) can learn new spells independently if they have the time. Others have a hard limit on how many they can know, and learning new spells means replacing old ones.

Do prepared casters need spellbooks, or do they prepare them by memory?

Given the setting, a spell book wouldn't make any sense. No class needs a spell book. Some spells might have a material component or focus requirement, but casters can take the a feat that lets them skip a single component. (The second level of that lets them skip two.)

For the non prepared casters, are they like sorcerers of D&D, or do you have a different mechanic in mind for them?

They're like D&D sorcerers. In fact, one's even called a "sorcerer". Or "sorceress", as the case may be. Their main weakness is the inability to know more than a few spells, but being able to cast whichever they know whenever they want to.

Can new spells be researched / developed?

Not yet. Maybe later, in the form of homebrewing, but not yet.

The energy pool of the martials sounds like the ki pool of Monks or the Grit pool of Gunslingers, which, as far as I'm concerned, works well as a mechanic.

Why yes. Also the power pool of psions, or the mana pools of all casters in almost any video game. All perfectly applicable comparisons, because they're exactly the same mechanic. And for once, I think mine might be the most unique version, because it allows you to choose how much of it to use, and some of it is used continuously.

Speaking of levels, is it a level based advancement or do you get xp, which you can spend flexibly on different stats and skills?

A little from column A, a little from column B. There's an experience system that gives you levels to take in classes, awarding skill points and feats, a lot like D&D. But there's other ways to increase your stats. Trainers are a good way to increase your stats immediately, and GMs have it at their discretion to award skill/attribute bonuses after quests either as quest rewards or for the actions of the players. There's also supposed to be an optional extra "deeds" mechanic that rewards XP and skill/attribute progression, but that's in the "when I get to it" pile. Which unfortunately is quite a pile.

I'm getting a D&D basis vibe, which makes sense given the GITPG background, and coming to Paizo next, but just thought I'd make sure.

Kinda-sorta. I used a lot of D&D terminology and some basic mechanics, but the game doesn't play like D&D at all. In fact, it's specifically designed to not play like D&D. It includes mechanics like body damage and bleeding, and has body damage based death conditions in addition to health based ones. (Although not all enemies are vulnerable to death from body damage, and not all enemies have health.)

Also, while I'm here, how do I get the message board to start notifying me when replies are made? I'm not going to be online all the time.

I've got the core mechanics working, a few need changing but I know what to do with those. Mostly I just don't have much content and I haven't worked in many of the minor mechanics yet.

By "point buy" I mean when creating a character. You have a set total for your base stats, a minimum and a maximum. You can't roll for stats. You do roll a die and add modifiers for most actions, or you can choose an automatic value to remove the chance.

As for spending points on tasks, that's done an awful lot.

For time, each turn has six seconds in it, which are spent on actions, but how many seconds an action takes can be stat-dependent. Attacks, for instance, use the "attack rate" derived stat, which for melee both strength and agility raise. This means they take 6/AR seconds, rounded up. Base attack rate is 1, most people have a strength and agility total between 20 and 29, which means +2 to attack rate, so an attack rate of 3 and thus two second basic attacks. (Some attacks take more or less time. Power attacks, for instance, take twice as much time.)

Spells use a spell slot system, kinda like D&D, except for a few classes. Sorcerers, bards, physicians and sentinels don't prepare spells. Martial artists use an energy pool, and many classes have magical abilities that just have a limit on the number of uses per rest, or can be used infinitely. (Bards, for instance, have magic songs, poems and mantras that are infinite, but take time and only work while being used.)

For other actions, there's a fatigue counter that builds as you act. This inflicts a -1 penalty to all attributes for every 100 points, depleting over time and especially when a character rests.

Most special abilities and equipment types also have a unique counter or pool associated with them, like the rage counter used by the "rage attack" feat, the armour points used by reactive and ablative armour, or the shield points used by energy shields.

Uh, no. Magic in this setting is an inherent trait of life, basically a life energy organized into supernatural traits based mostly on the user's psychological traits. (Those psychological traits are represented by classes.)

Why "or"? I like "and" better. The setting varies technologically from "rock, bone and metal" to "space ships, robots and nuclear fusion" based on which interconnecting world you're in, but magic is an inherent trait of life and so ubiquitous that it's impossible not to have a significant amount of it in one form or another.

I'm a lot farther than that. And this system actually has six major stats, rather than three, and uses a point-buy system instead of die rolls. It also has a setting built-in, which I'm working on at the same time.

My name is Justin, I'm coming here from Giant In The Playground forums. I'm building my own tabletop RPG and I'm hoping that here I can get more help (it is a herculean effort with such a small group) than I could over there. (I will admit that I have no idea if this site provides any chance of success, I stumbled across it at random.)

I'm coming here for a number of reasons. First off, I've been getting less and less comfortable with the lazy, zero-tolerance moderation of the Giant in the Playground staff. I haven't gotten in trouble there in a long time, but I'm sick of walking on eggshells. Second, my attempts to get help on GITP have been met entirely with failure. Nobody is interested in making a new system there, just playing the old ones. Third, the site has been down for (I think) a couple weeks, and while that's not a big deal it's kinda the last straw for me. I'm not leaving that forum entirely, but I need a new one and I hope this is it.

I'm here *only* for my new system and nothing else. I want to make it work, but making an entire system from scratch is rather difficult and my real life friends are putting in very sparse efforts on it if any at all, so if this system is to work, I will need a lot of help.