Friday, September 14, 2012

Can you fly a plane? Uh no... Can you?

Hey folks,
So I am waiting for a bus, and stats are on my mind.
So far for Dundred, I have been considering merging the main class abilities directly into the main attribute profile to do away with skill lists.

For example, if I split the catch all concept of dnds dexterity into agility, manual dexterity and aim, you can express rangers, rogues and nimble elves/acrobat/monk types in those three numbers.

Dexterity (manual) becomes purely about picking- locks, pockets and disarming traps. Rogues prevail.

Aim is for rangers (classic shooty types) and throwing knife types.

Agility is for action heroes... Reflexes, dodging, fighting, running and climbing.

I feel all your sub classes such as paladin, cavalier, viking, barbarian, acrobat, assassin and duel weapon ranger appeared because the basic class system just could not fully describe what players wanted to play.

My hunch is, by opening up the statistics to encompass more of the skills, you can express these in the stats.

What strikes me is the benefit of everyone being base skill assumed, noting down only exceptional expertise or weaknesses. You play heroes, and, by and large, you should be good enough to have a fair attempt at anything the players can imagine if their stats allow it.

What if we assume that all player characters can read, ride, climb, drive a stage coach, make camp, dance, care for weapons and equipment, handle animals and make a bow.

Of course, specialized training is needed for certain things, such as magic, poison making, alchemy, languages, healing- but these can all be roped together under 'knowledge' or 'lores', which would be a more atmospheric title. Anything that is purely yes/no can be a lore- the rest appears in stats.

Sure, everyone can ride... but the guy with high agility can ride well. The fighter may be able to disarm a simple spike trap, but a dextrous rogue is needed for the intricate clockwork bomb. Hell, even wizards can wear armor if they are strong enough to bear the weight.

You cant do that, should not echo around the game table... More, gee thats really unlikely...

So the stats I am toying with are...

Might (strength)
Agility (speed, nimbleness, balance)
Dexterity (pick locks,pockets,disarm)
Aim (shoot, throw)
Combat (might+agility/2)
Constitution (stamina, save vs. poisons/pain/fire)
Charisma (control npc for poor roleplayers)
Sense (detect, notice clue, wisdom)
Will (cast spells, save vs.spells)

I don't think an intelligence or wisdom stat need exist, as I find players are most engaged when they play using the full extent of their wits. The easiest way to handle it is filtering info to the player. Low 'sense' means less info given. Keen eyes are nothing without the mind to interpret the info... Therefore sense covers both detect and comprehension. Knowledge is covered by the concept of lores. Simply letting the DM give different info to players with different lores.

Charisma is on a knife edge, but though a player cannot play wiser than he is, they can influence npcs with a roll of the dice. The DM can take any compelling argument role played by a charismatic player whose character is a grumpy, mean looking type as the npc not trusting them, and vice versa. Charisma also acts as a good balancer for dwarves and barbarians... not putting points on charisma makes them more reliant on fighting, but bards and rogues can talk their way out with charm. Basically if you manipulate npcs you need a good charisma or charm stat.

I am also weighing up a 'faith' stat for priests and monks, but will works just as well for them. Of course you could make faith a resource that is replenished by charity, kindness, prayer and sacrifice, and the DM can deduct points for anti-priestly behavior. So perhaps yes.


2 comments:

  1. It's interesting reading your thought process. I'm currently developing my own system as well, and it's funny, I do the same thing while I'm on the bus/walking/showering: thinking about game mechanics and how to improve them.

    I started off with an OSR system, but decided that market is pretty full. So I recently scrapped my "D&Dish" game for something completely new.

    The stats I came up with are: Physical-Strength, Endurance, Agility, and Dexterity. Mental-Intelligence (this may change to Knowledge or Lore), Charisma, Willpower and Perception.

    It'll be interesting to see how it goes, I should start posting mine as well.

    ReplyDelete