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More than half the gamers I know were or are designing their own roleplaying game system. I've half-started based on systems from Traveler to Fudge/FATE to, of course, d20 SRD. Right now I'm looking at DnD 4th edition as the latest base to create a system and inflict on my poor groups.
What systems have you designed?
I haven't designed any games from scratch--would have no idea where to start on that.
Based on d20/Pathfinder, I am working on (for fun):
Suikod20: A system to play RPGs set in/based on the Suikoden series of video games. Based on PFRPG with a new magic system. This is very much a fan project as obviously I don't own the IP to Suikoden.
"Pathfinder Modern": I know there's a more "official" attempt by a 3PP to do this, but when I've had time/inspiration, I've been writing up a game to run Action Movie and Sci-Fi style adventures in, based on meshing the d20 Modern and Pathfinder systems together, with some additional revisions. Not incorporating in Urban Arcana at all, however. (I figure, if you want to play a Wizard, you can adapt the Pathfinder fantasy class to the modern skillset and just use that class instead.)
Also am (still) writing up extensive notes for my Pathfinder campaign setting, but that is almost entirely descriptive. Apart from a few traits and maybe eventually some prestige classes, no new mechanics (which is very intentional. I don't want to go to my players, new or old, and say, "here is my world, and here is all the additional crap you have to learn to play in it.").
Hi DQ!!! :-D
I am working on mangling the D&D 3.x rules along with some of the Pathfinder rules along with some house rules I have been playing with for years to create my homebrew campaign setting. I am struggling through the mechanics for the Paladin currently, but aside from that I like what I see. I am testing some things out in my Darklight Sisterhood game as well as in my Kingmaker game, they are working okay for PF rules, I will have to see how they translate to a more 3.x frame.
One day, I wanna do Spelljammer with Star Trek's universe.
One day, I wanna do Spelljammer with Star Trek's universe.
Actually, I'm working on combining Savage Tide and Spelljammer.
What systems have you designed?
Ho boy. I tried. I tried again and again. I was never happy with the results.
Back when I was young and idealistic, I tried to write a universal system that combined the best of MEGS, GURPS, and d6. Several times I brought the system to playtest, but what's good for one genre is not good for another. Even when I restricted myself to one genre, my system just wasn't balanced. It didn't always pay to develop your character the way you wanted to.
When my daughter was 3, and I played Candyland with her, we invented "Candyland: the RPG." It didn't have a proper system, beyond each character getting certain powers, and each character getting a certain number of "omni-items" (an imitation of the MEGS mechanic of "omni-gadgets.") When my daughter grew older and asked me to write some real mechanics for this game, I dug up my old system (which I described in my previous paragraph) and tried to adapt it for Candyland. But it didn't work the way my daughter wanted it to, and she quickly lost interest.
I decided that teaching my children about RPGs would mean teaching them about D&D. I simply found that other RPG engines, however great they might be, just weren't a substitute. So I tried to write my own variation of D&D, which combined the simplicity of BECMI with the balance and elegance of 3.X. I wrote the basic mechanics, and chapters on race and class. I was having fun writing it, and my hopes started to get up...
...but then, there were the spells. I wrote a list of 288 spells I wanted to include, edited descriptions for 218 of them, and then gave up in disgust. It wasn't just the spells that were a problem. My system was not simple, not balanced, and not elegant. Even the basic mechanics, I came to realize, could not work I wanted them to.
I've designed a few, but one of my most "original" was based on the Labyrinth universe (as the movie with David Bowie). It was meant to be a light, humouristic game where PCs where playing denizen of the labyrinth.
The game assumed that you succeed at everything unless the King of all Goblins (the GM) called for a test and you failed.
In other words, stats where "negative points" that you would put in weakness, clumsiness, scarey-cat, stupidity and ridicule.
Tests where done with a The Game of Life spinner. If it came on (one of) your colour for that stat, you failed the test. A juxtaposed colour meant a partial success.
I had a duo of players where one was a brute with a ball-and-chain, the other was the ball of the said ball-and-chain. He'd retract his legs in his round, spiky armour and hold to the chain the best he could (usually not very long).
It was fun...
Not being entirely satisfied with the Infinite Futures sci-fi rules-set, I'm still toying with the idea of writing my own take on a Pathfinder sci-fi. Half my stuff is a setting, half is a toolkit rule-set.
Plus, I am starting to look at a "boxed world setting" for fantasy Pathfinder, using 3pp material to replace base classes and magic (for starters).
Back when I was 13 I worked on a space opera style game, trying to fix what I thought was wrong with Traveler by injecting healthy doses of what I liked about Gamma World and Star Frontiers. I can't say it was a grand success. However, I still have the list of races floating around somewhere. In addition to humans, environmentally-altered humans, and mutants, I took what I thought were the best races from Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials and included them.
I'm very much prone to designing my own systems, but recently I've been trying to focus on making small, self-contained house rules that address my minor issues with Pathfinder RPG.
Trying to change a system to your liking without making huge waves is a great challenge!
I used the Star Wars Saga Edition rules as a baseline to create a system for a game set in the Fallout universe. Built it with 4 base classes, and a huge number of coverted and homebrew talents along with converted and homebrew feats as well. Perks turned into a whole sub-system that had to be developed and I treated them similar to a few of the achievement feats that have cropped up in various AP Player's Guides in Pathfinder.
Saga Edition's Condition Track proved to be a marvelous foundation for implementing Rads.
There is still loads to be done, and that little labor of love has been shelved for a while. I think it'll be a hoot when it's finished though.
I've been working intermittently on two systems.
One is called The Oath and the setting is pseudo-historical/mythological heroes across multiple cultures in the ancient world (The Iliad, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc.). Players are epic heroes (usually having at least one immortal parent) and have sworn "The Oath" to aid each other in fulfilling their destinies. Advancement comes through completing Deeds, which can result in material rewards and epithets/cognomen (swift-footed, god-like, of the shining helmet, etc.) which increase the character's statistics and provide special abilities. The dice mechanic I'm using for this one right now is rolling a pool of d8s equal to skill against a static target number. The result of the roll is counted similar to Yahtzee in that you either take the highest number, add up pairs or triples, or add up straights of at least 3 to get your result. The excess by which you beat the target number allows you to activate special abilities and increase success (do more damage, knock them to the ground, etc.)
The other is an untitled D&D clone that amplifys on the 20 level race concept that was discarded for 4e. In this system you choose race, class, astrological sign and prestige class which all have level templates that grant abilities and stat boosts. The character building element comes in combining the tables.
I've done a little work on an over-the-top dark fantasy game (built on the framework of Iron Heroes, which is a low magic/high-action OGL game), with lots of Samurai Champloo punk-anachronism. It's pretty half-baked, but I talked about the themes and tone here (with more concrete setting info later) and some of the mechanics here.
I haven't done any real work on it since then; I've built up a small pool of brainstorm docs and playtest notes, and they're a great resource to plunder for other things, but I won't be "finishing' it any time soon.
I sort of whipped together a "new system" over a weekend just because I wanted to run a rules-light dungeon crawl a while back(also, I had some design principles that I wanted to try out, like open-ended magic and strictly-reactive defenses). Of course, there are no rules for designing characters, which is the hard part of designing any system. But I made four characters that were roughly balanced alongside each other and my group had a good time playing them.
I tried to make it so that everything you need to play would be on your character sheet (just like 4e). In fact, I tried to make it so that there was no learning curve, and reading your charsheet taught you everything, but perhaps that's only true for players with D&D experience. Conflict resolution was 1d6+mod (usually a 'skill' stat plus an 'ability' stat), so basically d20 without the d20.
HITPOINTS: 14 ______
ARMOR: 2 (scales) If something hits you, reduce the damage by this much
VIGOR: 5 ______ You can spend 1 vigor to get +1 to any roll in combat, or to use other abilities. You get it back by resting.
ABILITIES CORE SKILLS
Strength 1 Combat: 3 Attack, block, counter-attack
Dexterity 4 Will: 5 Use magic, resist magic
Constitution 2
Intelligence 3
Wisdom 4
Charisma 1
OTHER SKILLS
Alertness: 4 Notice things, avoid ambushes
Athletics: 4 Jump, climb, swim, dodge attacks
Charms: Talk people into things.
Lore: 4 Know stuff
Sabotage: Pick locks, disable traps, break/ruin stuff
Sneak: 4 Hide, do things quietly, cover your trail
ATTACKS:
BITE +7 (Dex + Combat) Chomp!
Damage: 1d4
Hit by 5 or more: Add your strength bonus (+1) to damage.
JAVELIN +6 RANGED (Dex + Combat - 1) A simple throwing spear favored by your people
Max range: 100 feet (-1 penalty for every 20 feet)
Damage: 1d8+1
Hit by 5 or more: target takes -2 to rolls until they pull it out
MOVEMENT:
Speed: 4 squares
CHARGE You can move you speed and then make an attack as a standard action
Cost: 1 vigor
DEFENSES: If someone attacks you, pick one of these to oppose the attack
Passive defense 4 (Dex) If you can't/don't pick any of your defenses, enemies roll against this
SERPENTINE DODGE +8 (Dexterity + Athletics) Mammals can do it, but you do it better
Cost: Free (you can dodge any number of attacks)
Success: Take half damage
Success by 5 or more: Take no damage, and you may use up your next round's move action to slide 1 square
MENACE +7 (same as weapon) If you hit me, I'll hit you!
Cost: Use up your next standard action
Success: You get a free attack against your attacker (after their attack).
Success by 5 or more: Your attack happens first, and their attack deals half damage
OTHER ACTIONS:
REST (Standard action): Regain 2 vigor (You can't get back more than your max)
JUJU SNAKES (Standard action, 2 vigor):
Most of your magic revolves around your three javelins, each of which contains a malicious spirit bound within it. As a standard action you may cause any one of them (including one that is sticking out of an enemy) to spring to sudden life as an evil-looking snake. This transformation lasts for 3 rounds, unless the snake manages to slither into a recently-dead body (this creates a juju zombie, which is a much more sustainable vessel for the spirit). A "slain" snake reverts to the form of a broken javelin, though it can be used again after being ritually mended.
Kabara: Dangerous; more powerful but willful
Poklo: Careful; sly but craven
Borb: Temperamental, idiotic, but basically obedient
You may use similar magic on any wooden object anointed with your blood, allowing evil spirits to possess and transform it, but this is dangerous as you have no special control over "wild" spirits.
CLINGING DARKNESS (Standard action, 2 vigor)
You create a ten-foot radius area that nothing can see through. This area lasts 1 round. In addition, make a ‘darkness’ attack against every creature in the area
DARKNESS +9 (wisdom + will)
Hit: Target takes -2 to all rolls for 1d4 rounds
Hit by 5 or more: Target is completely blinded 1 round (even if it leaves the area)
I've been working on a full rewrite loosely based on Pathfinder, with changes in pretty much all quarters. So far, I've got the combat rules, most of the skills, and am about 50% through classes.
The other is an untitled D&D clone that amplifys on the 20 level race concept that was discarded for 4e. In this system you choose race, class, astrological sign and prestige class which all have level templates that grant abilities and stat boosts. The character building element comes in combining the tables.
Nice! I've toyed with a lot of similar ideas in various contexts.
Have you done any playtesting?
I like the genre and concept of The Oath, but the Yahtzee dicepool mechanic looks like a drag to me. What works in Yahtzee (a game where the dice are the ENTIRE game) does not necessarily work in RPGs.
I've been working on a full rewrite loosely based on Pathfinder, with changes in pretty much all quarters. So far, I've got the combat rules, most of the skills, and am about 50% through classes.
As an interesting side note, I've just finished skimming my copy of Ultimate Magic, and it seems Paizo's been thinking in several of the same directions I have! Particularly like the channeling variants for the cleric--I'd been planning on expanding on channeling options beyond positive and negative energy.
Nice! I've toyed with a lot of similar ideas in various contexts.Have you done any playtesting?
Not yet. I'm still trying to build some of the tables. It has turned out to be more difficult than I thought. The first few I built ended up being too focused and fit too well with specific classes. I want to avoid easy choices and have the tables work to make a more balanced and interesting character with weird combos rather than just all stacking to focus on one idea.
I like the genre and concept of The Oath, but the Yahtzee dicepool mechanic looks like a drag to me. What works in Yahtzee (a game where the dice are the ENTIRE game) does not necessarily work in RPGs.
It may turn out to be too time-consuming in the end. There are a lot of effects in the game that mess with the dice pool though. Intervention of your divine patron allows you to reroll dice from the pool. Some fear effects allow you to force rerolls or remove specific dice from the pool, etc.
I have a half plan to someday make a D&D 3.8. Mostly Pathfinder rules, but with some clases altered/substituted/added to fit my view, like replacing the monk with a martial artist class and the bard with a performer class, because I don't like these two classes.
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I'm working on a variant d20 system for Phantasy Star. (Yes, I know there's already one, but it's... kinda lame and hasn't been updated in almost eight years.) It's gonna be what I like about Pathfinder with a little bit of Star Wars RCR (specifically, how Techniques/Special Skills work.)
Ambitious? Yeah. But I think I can get it finished up. =D
Edit: When I say "Phantasy Star," I mean a game that can be played in any era of the setting, from LaShiec's oppressed Algo in Phantasy Star I, to the far future of Phantasy Star Online.
What systems have you designed?
i've been working on a massively simplified d20 system, with statblocks that can be created in under 5 minutes and take up under 5 lines of text.
Well, many here know that I have been working on a Legion of Super-Heroes RPG for the past 3 years or so. I will never say its Completed, because no game world in my opionion can ever be truly done, though at one point or another, one needs to say, OK, this is what I want published should that day and opportunity arrive.
I've had people suggest or state the game is much like (or worse, taken from) the new DC Heroes game, which came out towards the end of last year. That of coarse is a completely false asssumption by others simply because I knew nothing of DC's forthcoming game by the time I shared the basic rules with others here on Paizo as well as was running a PBP game thread here on paizo. I had no advance knowledge of the game prior to the publishers advertising.
Similarities, YES, even down to some terminology, I like to think that more than one person can come up with a good idea.
The game has 19 categories ranging from Feeble/1 to Intinite /19. These categories measure how good the character is in all respects, including:
- There basic traits (Strength, Intellect, Speed, etc.)
- Areas of Expertise (the game's equivelant of skills)
- There Super power as well as all the various power effect they can perform with that power
- The characters personality traits
- Specie traits
- Power Effects (positive power alterations unique to the character)
- Power Limitations (negative power alterations unique to the character)
- Weaknesses (such as Kryptonite to Superboy)
- Character Category (sorta like character level, its a compiliation of all the character's powers and other abilities to measure how strong they are in relation to others
- Vehicle statistics and other measures of power for various other equipment types and weapons
- It serves as a measure of damage
Basic dice, all but d100, roll d20 to attack, defend, make your Areas of Expertise checks, and initiative rolls. Some die roll results are compated to a static number called a challenge score, others are opposed rolls such as when you smash someone in the face or use your power against them, they receive a defense roll to counter act it.
The basic rules, very simple, the charm, in the details.
Design Creation Rule #1: Make it follow the comics, so you as a player, feel like your immersed into one, just as if you were reading it.
Design Creation Rule #2: Not a generic game, it must scream LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES in all ways possible, ranging from hardcore rules to all comic campaign lore, ranging from planet accuracy, character alterations from Silver Comics on up, to picking up a supplement that details out the Khunds or the U.P. Councils. Nothing short of the absolute best Legion product I can design.
I offer an open invitiation to all who would like to participate in the ongoing Play Testing taking place here at Paizo.
15 or so years ago I and some of my players designed a Star Trek RPG because we hated FASA's. It's funny in that we created a dice mechanic similar to the d20 rules before they were introduced to the gaming world at large. The biggest difference was that we used d30s, instead.
We came up with rules for advancement in rank, rules for skills using the d30, ship combat, and skill based character combat (both weapon and hand to hand). Character creation was done using 4d4s, and experience points were used to both track a character's path toward a higher rank and to increase abilities or prowess with skills.
The rules were pretty simple and straightforward. We only managed to play a couple of times after all the work we put into the creation, but those sessions were great fun.