I was brainstorming ideas, and I thought I'd run one by the forum. What if in an rpg you went with a more realistic skill and race approach. What if it was just like in real life, where you have a random race and skills, just like in life. I mean think about it, we're all good at certain things, some people are even good at things they don't like doing.
Advantages:
--A lot more realistic
--Never know what you'll get
Drawbacks:
--Not many people like this kind of supprise.
--People would complain about being good at something they don't like.
ID:153861
 Nov 25 2002, 3:07 pm
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Or not. Just don't allow rolling in the first place. Player logs in, makes a character, FORCE random stats/skills down their throats.
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I believe the idea is that you don't pick your parents (in real life). And I haven't seen a game on BYOND with your [character's] parents in it. Some people are born with a natural talent for something.
If I were you I would let them choose their race When you were born, did you pick your race? | |
If it's a game with many races each with different starting locations, I could understand forcing the player to have a random starting town/race. I have a feeling if you give players random skills, a player would login, make a new character, not like the skills they get, then re-log and make a new character until they get what they want.
Hmmm, maybe if you forced the player to have a randomly assigned race, each race would have natural bonuses at some kinds of skills. That way a player could get to be good at any skill, but if they are "born" with a little bonus then they could become gooder. | |
I found the point buying system an effective solution to this problem. Just make exceptionally high skill points cost more than average ones... i.e. you want to make yourself a big bad fighter, so you buy a bunch of points in strength, but as your strength points go above a certain level, they start costing two points each, and then three, etc. This will leave you with less points for other things, like intelligence. Forcing the roll system down peoples' throats will just end up with them deleting their characters and making new ones until they get what they want. If you restrict THIS, then they probably won't bother with your game, honestly. The general idea of an RPG is the RP, and when you hand someone a role that doesn't fit with what they want to role play as, you have problems. If you're just shooting to have a wide variety of races in your world, just make sure that each race has something that would cause players to want to choose it over another.
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What if it was just like in real life, where you have a random race and skills, just like in life. What the hell are you talking about? Yes, but is there any choice involved? Who is the "you" you're talking about? "You" are a random individual. I don't know "you." You could be American, European, Elven, or Klingon for all I know... I don't know, and until after you were born, you didn't know. From an external point of view (like that of your parents), you're right, race isn't random... but from your point of view, everything about your parentage is completely arbitrary. As for your skills... if you're born with an aptitude for art, that's pretty random. Depending on the music played in your crib, you may have a better potential for math or for more creative ventures. True, someone chose that music for you, but it wasn't you who chose it, so from your point of view, it's random. If your parents had you taking piano lessons since you were 2, is that exactly your choice, either? When you get older, you do have a lot of choices about what you study and practice, but the foundations have already been laid. In short, a system that randomly assigns race and starting skill levels is just like real life. | |
OneFishDown wrote:
If it's a game with many races each with different starting locations, I could understand forcing the player to have a random starting town/race. I have a feeling if you give players random skills, a player would login, make a new character, not like the skills they get, then re-log and make a new character until they get what they want. You could save the character, and simply not allow them to overwrite it and create a new one. -DogMan | |
Drawback:
--You have to put a lot of effort into linking the skills. It doesnt make much sense if your character has two skills that just dont go together, or has a real talent in one skill, then no talent in a skill that is based on the same stuff. --Your forced to roleplay someone elses character, this could be considered a pro or a con. Although unless you going to write up a background for them all its most likily going to be considered a con. A better system might be to just let the players choose what they start off being good at, then having certiant ones choosen at random that get better. Of course this isnt 100% random, 'race' is a factor. Another alternative is to make random profile. It picks your race, and the areas you are either good or bad in. The areas would be made by splitting the skills list into a bunch of sub lists. Now the areas are decided, all the skills in there are set to 2 if your bad in that area, 5 if your average, and 8 if you excel in that area. Now they are modified with a rand(-4,4). There you have it, youve figured out there starting skill levels. You'll have to be above 5 in the skill before you can use it though, but you can increase the skill without using it. Now when your playing the game the area's are still used, along with there original bad/alright/good variable, to decide how easily you get better at the skill. -DogMan | |
Just keep this in mind:
You're building a game. Games are designed to be fun. If it makes the game more fun, do it. If not, don't. | |
Some people disagree with what makes it fun though. Some would need GM Powers and PBags to make the game worth playing, some would kill him for putting those in.
-DogMan | |
CON: People don't like the inconvenience.