Morning all
I've tried my hand at building whole rpg systems in the past. Most broke down during self testing, but I keep trying. This time I have an idea for a cyberpunk psionic game. To avoid a lengthy description of the setting imagine a Asian warhammer 40k, set on a dystopian nuclear war scar earth in the future. Cybernetics are the common place, and the ability to change ones body and even replace it are wide spread. Psionic are also common having been attained thru passed genetic modification. The main focus of my game is that the player characters are part of a caste of "warrior monks" charged by the last bastions of human civilization to defend and protect the dome cities across the planet. These dome cities are under threat from several factions. the renegade are the savage human that live outside the dome cities in the harsh wastelands whom must fight daily to survive. Next the Machines, the automated defense drones and security system left over from the previous age whom see the dome cities as a threat to the rebuilding. And finally the biggest bad of them all the Qisha, the manifestation of negative energy given form by fragments of strange alien artifacts. Now first off, how does that sound? If possible constructive feedback would be appreciated.
Next, my BIG question is the following. The system it self is skill based, and all action of importance have a skill for them(looking like 50 skills right now). next the system runs under a 2d10+skill+ideal vs target number. My big issue is I'd like to include a moral system of "ideals" as "core stats". My idea is such their are 8 ideal stats .the ideals are a bushido vs shourido form l5r, but this is only for starters, I will undoubtly change the virtues. now each ideal stat has two sides, and preforming action in a certain way will push your characters stats toward or away from different sides. The ideals are as such. courtesy opposes control, courage opposes determination, Sincerity opposes will, compassion vs knowledge, duty vs perfection, honor vs strength, honesty vs insight. The overall theme is others vs self, the will of the order vs the will of the character, excelling for the good of other vs excelling for the good of self. you get the picture. now each ideal is on a track of 10 dots like such A OOOOOOOOOO B, now your value of each ideal is equal to how close it is to a side with 10 being the highest, for both side. like so (For A: A 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 B, For B: A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 B). So if your ideal stat was Courtesy vs Control and was such CY OOXOOOOOOO CT, your ideal stat would be Courtesy 8, Control 3. Make sense?
Now my Main question is does this work? The use of these core stats are "optional", so when preforming an action you don't need to " open the door with strength", or "Jump out a window with duty", or "fire a gun with will". I would like to include them in such a way that a player can use the ideals uniquely in preforming action in order to both express who their character is, for example "I chase down the renegades with reckless abandon leaving the party behind, and throwing my orders to wind(determination)" and to gain a mechanical bonus as well. That by finding ways to express your character, you'll gain numerical benefits. So basically would/could a system like such potentially work? Again any constructive feedback would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time
thefactotum
p.s. I'm sorry for my terrible grammar and sentence structure. I also wasn't sure where to post this.
Sounds like an awesome setting. I look forward to seeing it in print. =)
I am not clear on how you wanted those ideals to work. The way I do understand your idea is that you want to express them along a line. However, if all you want is a number, that isn't necessary. A suggestion could be that you start with 1 on each side of the line:
CY X--------O CT
You can then raise both of these:
CY XXXX----OO CT
When the line is full, you can't raise either further, merely switch.
CY XXXXXXOOOO CT -> CY XXXXXXXOOO CT
This means your Control and Courtesy will limit one another, which is a cool decision. Fading Suns has a system much like this.
As for these values affecting actions, you could give bonuses to actions in line with the ideal you have, free to add every session, or every story.
One more thing: If you have too many such values, people lose track. Try to limit yourself to, say, three or four such lines.
Best of luck and good going.
Sounds like an awesome setting. I look forward to seeing it in print. =)
I am not clear on how you wanted those ideals to work. The way I do understand your idea is that you want to express them along a line. However, if all you want is a number, that isn't necessary. A suggestion could be that you start with 1 on each side of the line:
CY X--------O CT
You can then raise both of these:
CY XXXX----OO CT
When the line is full, you can't raise either further, merely switch.
CY XXXXXXOOOO CT -> CY XXXXXXXOOO CT
This means your Control and Courtesy will limit one another, which is a cool decision. Fading Suns has a system much like this.
As for these values affecting actions, you could give bonuses to actions in line with the ideal you have, free to add every session, or every story.
One more thing: If you have too many such values, people lose track. Try to limit yourself to, say, three or four such lines.
Best of luck and good going.
Thank you Sissyl,for you kind words of support :) Print would be wonderful and working in the game industry would be a dream.
The end result that you suggested was more of my starting point. (However I like the way you built the continuum so if possible Id like to use that idea for character gen?). I wanted each side to limit the other forcing the player to choose which of A or B they wanted but also to make a system where sticking to an extreme would have a down side. I want to encourage "moral change" through the progression on the continuum but not so much that players have rapidly changing moral standing or mood swings
I realize that I'm going to have to change the virtues to be more apples to apples comparisons, and also make them both rewarding.
Also what edition of fading suns contains the sub-system you spoke of? I'd like to look at it for reference.
Again Thank you :)