What rpg system are you using?

[anpd]

Hi I am about to design my rpg system and was curious what you guys are using. What stats do you have? What do they influence ( intelligence = more mana, for instance). How do you handle combat when you hit, how much damage do you inflict?

Regards Andreas

[purestrain]

I guess the topic is too wide-ranging and too individual for an answer. As for me, i'm doing the 'evolutionary', stats come and go, combat is tweaked every now and then.

[guest509]

  As for stats, I'm fiddling with this...
Arm (w/little arm bicep symbol) - Str, +melee, thrown objects.
Leg (boot symbol) - Speed, Move rate, dodge
Eye (eye symbol) - accuracy, to hit+
Head (brain symbol) - IQ, resist mental attacks, +magic
Heart (little zelda heart) - Toughness, Hits, HP. Maybe resist poison...
Mouth (smile) - Charisma, though I might not use this stat at all.
Armor (little shield) - Defense, resist physical attacks that are not dodged.

This is for a super hero/sci fi thing I'm in the beginning stages of making. I'm not doing any leveling. I am planning on making the 'missions' short and diverse. 30 mins, 5-9 levels or so.

For a Fantasy Squad RPG I was messing with I was thinking of going statless, but your starting class decides what you can use. For example
  Fighter - use heavy weapons and armor, no scrolls or wands. Strong start.
  Mage - Light armor and weapons only, can use any scroll, book or wand you want. Weak start.
  Thief - Use 'tools' for picking locks and disabling traps. Use medium armor and weapons. No shields.
  Cleric - No edged weapons, heavy armor. Can use holy relics (heals, shields, turn undead). No dark magic wands/scrolls

  Combat would be a simple Weapon + Die Roll - Armor = Damage. Spells ignore armor.
  All characters start with 100% health, mana is not used as wands have their own charge limit and Relics, Books and Scrolls cannot be used while moving.

Hope that helps...it can be fun designing RPG systems but I recommend getting on with it. Many people languish in the design phase and do not program anything.

[anpd]

Thanks Jo, yes I am designing while programming other stuff. Will try to add combat and similiar stuff before the design is finished and change the calculations when needed.

[Bear]

Strictly a system I made up.  The characters have a few stats: Speed, Strength, Toughness, Smarts and Stubbornness.  I may later add more (Finesse and Sensitivity) if I don't feel like that's working.

Humans are one of the more versatile races, having the ability to eat nearly anything, the ability to swim, and better/longer daylight vision than anybody else.  The other choices so far are Dwarfs and Elfs.  Dwarfs get extra toughness and strength and stubbornness, and see in infrared -- but they sink like rocks and are mostly limited in diet to meat and mushrooms, which means the hunger clock is kinda bad for them.  Elfs get extra speed and intrinsic detect magic (which can eventually turn into a limited identify ability), but they're short on toughness and strength, limited to a vegetarian diet (again, bad for the hunger clock), and take damage whenever they're in extended contact with iron or steel (wearing, wielding). 

Most things are handled as rolls between opposed values.  For example the attacker's hit versus the defender's dodge is how the to-hit roll is handled.  For each value, a random number in the range 0 to the value is generated, and whichever develops the higher number "wins".  For example, if I have attack 10 and a monster has dodge 12, then if my 0-10 number turns out to be 7 and his 0-12 number turns out to be 3, then I hit him.  Nothing adds to or subtracts from the rolls; magical bonuses and penalties are added to the values before the rolls are made, so a "+3" sword adds 3 to my attack, or a -3 sword adds 3 to the opponent's dodge. 

[anpd]

Most things are handled as rolls between opposed values.  For example the attacker's hit versus the defender's dodge is how the to-hit roll is handled.  For each value, a random number in the range 0 to the value is generated, and whichever develops the higher number "wins".  For example, if I have attack 10 and a monster has dodge 12, then if my 0-10 number turns out to be 7 and his 0-12 number turns out to be 3, then I hit him.  Nothing adds to or subtracts from the rolls; magical bonuses and penalties are added to the values before the rolls are made, so a "+3" sword adds 3 to my attack, or a -3 sword adds 3 to the opponent's dodge. 

That's how i planned to handle rolls aswell, and then calculate damage based on weapon vs armor.

[eclectocrat]

I started off with the d20 system core. Now I change/add/remove things slowly, making sure that things stay balanced. It's not perfect, but starting from a (relatively) balanced base helps me focus on programming.

What I find more difficult than balancing the system is balancing the AI. Trying to make the NPC's smart, but not omniscient is tricky.

[Bear]

Heh.  Balancing isn't something I see as a huge priority, or at least not early on. 

I start by admitting that a good game sometimes kills your character for no reason - I think it should be rare, but I don't aspire to completely stop it from happening.

Second, I am not the yardstick of the universe.  Even if I balance it "perfectly" for me, that doesn't really say all that much about the balance w/r/t a typical player -- so there's a limit to what I can do about balance myself.  Keeping this limit in mind, only a very general approximation to balance is possible.  It's not worth the effort for me to try to do more than that appoximation myself.

I will make a pass at balancing it based on a few playthroughs of my own, but mostly I'm hoping that after release, I'll start getting useful feedback from actual players about what they find excessively easy or excessively hard.

[guest509]

It should be noted that your system should be specific to what you are trying to model. It can be as simple as Attack, Defense, Move, Magic or even no stats at all except for weapon, armor and HP%.

[Krice]

Hi I am about to design my rpg system and was curious what you guys are using. What stats do you have?

I'm trying to develop a simple RPG system for my pirate roguelike Teemu. Creating a RPG system is just hilariously difficult in my opinion. All that balancing stuff, calculations etc. That's why I decided to create more realistic system for my other roguelike Kaduria. It's almost like modeling physics in coarse way and trying not to create too difficult situations for the player (like facing 1000 ton dragon and getting killed right away).

Both systems are unfinished and also the main reason why both games are unfinished.

[abecedarian]

Really interesting thread... Choices, choices, and it's so subjective!

[deepshock]

 I use a simple system with 5 stats (Combat for damage, Vitality for HP and status resistance, Speed for movement and action recovery times, Technique for technique effectiveness, and Energy for cooldown on lesser techniques and meter gain on greaters.) Leveling up is done via completion of primary tasks, and most things are nonrandom. Damage is fixed based on one's combat rating and their level, and status debuffs only work if one's technique rating * technique potency is greater than the opponent's vitality * level.

There are six classes with different attribute focuses, weapons and techniques. Weapons are sidegrades not unlike those in Team Fortress 2, putting the focus more on tactics and character class differences than gear. There are glyphs that grant slight advantages when equipped, and glyph slots are part of the balancing of weapons.