On the first day...

Today marks the day that I begin turning notes into brilliance. I'm officially beginning my manuscript for my own RPG system. Beyond that announcement, there seems to be very little to talk about, so lets go into a couple of concepts I've been bouncing arround in my head for this game?

Feats:

Why feats? Why every three levels? What does the idea of limiting yourself to a certain few things every couple of levels round out the game? How does killing a bunch of kobolds teach you to get +3 to Profession: cook? Did you sautee the things and serve them to the party? How does disarming a couple of traps make you learn how to cast your spells without verbal components? Gaining feats with levels seems like a bad way to progress a character.

My ideal solution:

Why not have them gained through actual in game actions and progression? Your character wants a feat to be able to climb a wall with a +2 bonus? Well, why doesn't he use his climb skill more often? Perhaps even doing some strength training? Hitting kobolds wouldn't help much in itself right? Well that sword is mighty heavy and that must be able to tone his muscles and relate to climbing in some way, however sweet talking the bar wench would have absolutely nothing to do with climbing therefore the "XP" gained from that should have nothing to do with the other.

Individual progression:

What if there were different progression charts for spacific skills, feats, powers etcetera? If I use my strength to fight a monster or climb a wall, my strength would improve, but not neccisarily my charm.

Would this lead to alot of bookkeeping? Perhaps, but... how simple could one make a system like that? Mutants and Masterminds (www.greenronin.com) has a system of purchasing feats and stats, and powers and skills with XP, with levels bundled in packages of 15 xp. But my game isn't about Superheroes... or is it?

It's time for breaking down what I'm wanting to do and where I want to go with my RPG.

Currantly there is no working title. I'm trying to consider what would bring my concept to life in a name, and in order to do that I think I should analyze what my RPG concept is.

Why use WoTC's OGL?

There are several reasons to start with this as a framework. There is a nearly limitless and open source of terms, tables, and pre-existing information to draw upon freely with no liscencing fees associated to use it at all.

The end goal is not neccisarily to copy the system we already all know and love. D&D 3.5 already did it so well, and Pathfinder RPG already changed up the sytem and supports that style and type of gaming. On top of all of this, D&D is not what I'm trying to do, it is just a very good starting point to get across my concepts and ideas to the point where we may not need it any longer, or it doesn't even look like that system at all.

What am I trying to accomplish?

I want a fully player driven character design process with easy set up, and quick character generation. One with no static classes, everything you do means something, and has limitless potential to make any and all characters immaginable. I want to have "True" 0 level play be the norm. A character will go through thier own common life, and learn their role as the player plays the game. I want simple advancement, with a easy and flowing method of getting precicely where you want your character to be.

Every action means something. There's more to the world than combat. Every single experience your character has influences thier progression.

How will I go about this?

Again I'm starting with the D&D OGL as a starting place, I'm going to break down the system, take what I want, modify it to the rules system I have floating in my head, and share with all of you my concepts and ideas. This is just step one.

My first report: Breaking down statistics

The first question is do we need numbers instead of just having bonuses? Does the 12 in strength mean anything, and can it work just as well only showing the +1?

I really think that the bonuses in this game are way more important than the base numbers. To reflect this, I'm removing the "roll for stats" "point buy" and other such concepts from my OGL so far. Game statistics will be measured only in modifiers, keeping things simple, but still holding true to the known and practiced 1d20 + Modifier vs. Target number method of determining success.

Levels, good or bad?

I want every character to be able to play together and be effective, and for the game to always be fun. This isn't possible with the typical 20 level progression. Someone at Level 1 cannot compete along the same levels as a Level 20 character. The problem with doing this is making an arbitrary cap to how far things will go. To remedy my problem, I'm removing Levels entirely. Experience will still be gained but it will be used in very different ways that players may be used to. To reflect my design goal, I want experience to be used to purchase bonuses. The system I have in mind is more specialized than having a group of points you can spend any time to improve things, but I'm keeping the true method under wraps until I'm ready to open my game up to the public.

I think this is a good blog report for this week. Stay tuned for more, and if you like what you see, please donate and support the creation of this progect.

Thank you for reading