Cool ideas you have for systems in RPGs

[Takamori]

I biased because for example I enjoy Fear and Hunger and any game that has limb took in consideration as risk and reward.
But man if you game has any sort of tactical approach let me dismember some motherfuckers or at least wound limbs and cause debuffs that allow me to get battle superiority in case the target is armored.
I deserve all the edgy reacts, but its a hill that I will die on.

 

[Serus]

Cha should be divorced from Beauty like in Arcanum. That's not what the Greeks meant by Charisma.

Beauty as a stat is nonsense anyway. Even in Arcanum it didn't play an important role and if the game wasn't so easy/easy to break no one would make a beautiful character. Because the game isn't particularly challenging people can take it and larp. The thing is - adding stats that are mostly useless is not a good design.
Beauty, if at all relevant (I'd say for CRPGs it rarely is) should be made as a trait that can be picked only at character creation. As two opposed traits pretty/ugly, everyone without any of those two is average. That should be all that is needed for 99% of CRPGs that take beauty into account in a systemic way.
And in the case you responded to, the trait could be lost in a few ways: age if the game tracks it, a battle scar - at least a real reason for bards to stay back in combat. Possibly more.

 

[Butter]

Beauty could be a double-edged sword. Beautiful characters might be able to seduce someone and steal his wallet, but haggard and disfigured characters might have an easier time intimidating someone. With this in mind, it shouldn't compete for attribute points with things that get unambiguously stronger as they go up.

 

[Vic]

ugliness is not intimidating, it's disgusting and you want to avoid the person, unless he has a high str stat then he can roll an intimidation check to get you afraid and spill the beans

 

[luj1]

I want to see more of the class system used in Bradley's Wizards & Warriors... where you can kinda migrate to and from various classes but you need to find a master

 

[NecroLord]

For example i've been thinking about this


- every 5 levels your character gains +1 WIS as to reflect aging
- every time a party member dies and you resurrect him, he loses -1 CON permanently
- skills you dont use degrade every in-game month (or something like that)

Resurrection shouldn't be possible at all.
Playing with the forces of Life and Death is not a mortal's business.
I would make it a quest or some really high level ability or spell that also requires that you permanently sacrifice a part of yourself to complete the resurrection.
That out of the way, I've wondered how many actions should a character be able to make in a turn, if you can purchase additional actions with a perk or talent, level, etc.

 

[luj1]

I would make it a quest or some really high level ability or spell that also requires that you permanently sacrifice a part of yourself to complete the resurrection.

that is a cool idea, make resurrection special and more significant

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I am OK with Ressurection spells as an ultimate high level spell, but it should have significant risk to the user, or follow the 5E Wish rule where you are in capacitated have a 1/3 chance to never cast it again.

The stress of casting this spell to produce any effect other than duplicating another spell weakens you. After enduring that stress, each time you cast a spell until you finish a long rest, you take 1d10 necrotic damage per level of that spell. This damage can't be reduced or prevented in any way. In addition, your Strength drops to 3, if it isn't 3 or lower already, for 2d4 days. For each of those days that you spend resting and doing nothing more than light activity, your remaining recovery time decreases by 2 days. Finally, there is a 33 percent chance that you are unable to cast wish ever again if you suffer this stress.

 

[Serus]

I would make it a quest or some really high level ability or spell that also requires that you permanently sacrifice a part of yourself to complete the resurrection.

that is a cool idea, make resurrection special and more significant

In TOME4 (rogueike mode) there aren't any repeatable resurrection spells but there are a few special ways to do it. Including having a weird collar that resurrects as you are killed but cuts your head off and you grow a monster head instead. That's one of the funniest ones but there are a few others, tied to items you find or some races or classes.

 

[luj1]

Yeah I played TOME, great game

 

[MerchantKing]

Rpgs really need a working stock market and turnip farming economy.

 

[KD6-3.7]

Resurrection could combine with summons in that there's a skill-dependent chance you return as a steaming pile of dung or noxious bubbling slime or three gold coins.

 

[NecroLord]

Resurrection could combine with summons in that there's a skill-dependent chance you return as a steaming pile of dung or noxious bubbling slime or three gold coins.

Worse: You might get reincarnated as a woman, or an orc.

 

[Serus]

Resurrection could combine with summons in that there's a skill-dependent chance you return as a steaming pile of dung or noxious bubbling slime or three gold coins.

Worse: You might get reincarnated as a woman, or an orc.

Seriously though, a system where resurrection might lead to some bad (and semi-random) results would be interesting. You could even add an option to heal those bad results but it would require tons (like most of) of gold - voila, problem of players having too much cash resolved at the same time.

In general, in another thread I mentioned the idea of semi-permadeath systems. Basically permadeath but with several "credits" (like TOME4 in adventure mod). It would be even more interesting combining it with the above.
It would work like this: Life lost => resurrection (if character has the means) => character is getting weaker => If character has the means he can heal but eventually he will run out of cash (and other stuff, like powerful wizards owing favors) => character gets weaker every time he resurrects => eventually he dies for the last time.

I know, most people would hate it. Still if i ever do a CRPG, I'll include the above idea. At the very least as an option.

 

[NecroLord]

Resurrection could combine with summons in that there's a skill-dependent chance you return as a steaming pile of dung or noxious bubbling slime or three gold coins.

Worse: You might get reincarnated as a woman, or an orc.

Seriously though, a system where resurrection might lead to some bad (and semi-random) results would be interesting. You could even add an option to heal those bad results but it would require tons (like most of) of gold - voila, problem of players having too much cash resolved at the same time.

In general, in another thread I mentioned the idea of semi-permadeath systems. Basically permadeath but with several "credits" (like TOME4 in adventure mod). It would be even more interesting combining it with the above.
It would work like this: Life lost => resurrection (if character has the means) => character is getting weaker => If character has the means he can heal but eventually he will run out of cash (or stuff like powerful wizards owing favors) => character gets weaker every time he resurects => eventually he dies for the last time.

I know, most people would hate it. Still if i ever do a CRPG, I'll include the above idea. At the very least as an option.

Yes, which is exactly what I was saying.
Death becomes pretty much a non factor during high level D&D play, merely a slight inconvenience.
I don't think other games have resurrection to the same extent of D&D, you just deal with it and roll a different character.
But, as I said, toying with the forces of Life and Death should not be the affair of mortals.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

2E AD&D

 

[luj1]

Rpgs really need a working stock market and turnip farming economy.

You just need creative educated people with a passion. But all three things (creativity, education, passion) are in short supply now.

 

[std::namespace]

So my idea is mental inventory. It's like a regular inventory but instead of listing items, it lists things you've learned so far. Whenever you find out something significant (piece of obscure lore, geographic location of something important, personal information about certain characters etc.) you get an unique item symbolizing what you've just learned.

These can be used in several ways. First of all they can be sold to information brokers for money or other information. Information sold that way won't disappear from your inventory but it's value will drop down, after all the more people know about a secret the less valuable it is. The other use would be to affect dialogue choices. Some choices can only be accessed if you have a specific piece of information, like knowing about the mutant's infertility in Fallout one. Other times knowing a certain "value of secrets" will be enough. Having enough items tagged "political intrigue" which symbolize secrets you know about local nobility would be used to impress a local lord. Knowing enough "arcane secrets" would impress a wizard etc. Other times it could be used to make certain check easier. A guard will let you into a city if you bribe him or show him proper papers. But exchanging knowledge about far-off lands will lower his price.

The obvious question is: "why bother with all that crap instead of tracking everything in your journal like in a normal RPG". It makes playing a diplomat more fun, because instead of putting points into your speech skill you now need to actually think about what you're doing and play it a bit like an adventure game. You only run into a wall as a diplomat when you encounter a speech check that is too difficult for you at a given moment, the only way out of this situation is to reload and return to the conversation after you've put some more points in the relevant skill. If some additional information is needed you just need to finnish relevant subquests on your way. Now when you run into a wall you need to think about whom you're talking to and what information could this guy be interested in. Then you need to think where could you find this kind of information and hunt down relevant NPC. This would make playing a talker feel more like an actual game than a CYOA.

whats the difference to an inventory, aside from fluff...? none. what do you think is the difference between a journalentry and an item is?
you can do this in fallout...
it needs complex checks and design in quests, and thats the reason no one is doing it

 

[Shadenuat]

Cha should be divorced from Beauty like in Arcanum. That's not what the Greeks meant by Charisma.

Beauty as a stat is nonsense anyway. Even in Arcanum it didn't play an important role and if the game wasn't so easy/easy to break no one would make a beautiful character. Because the game isn't particularly challenging people can take it and larp. The thing is - adding stats that are mostly useless is not a good design.
Beauty, if at all relevant (I'd say for CRPGs it rarely is) should be made as a trait that can be picked only at character creation. As two opposed traits pretty/ugly, everyone without any of those two is average. That should be all that is needed for 99% of CRPGs that take beauty into account in a systemic way.
And in the case you responded to, the trait could be lost in a few ways: age if the game tracks it, a battle scar - at least a real reason for bards to stay back in combat. Possibly more.

Its nonsense if whole story is about murderhoboing
If rpg js about court intrigue and you need to outplay 3 other princesses beauty would be more realistic stat than strength

 

[Shadenuat]

So my idea is mental inventory

Disco didn't do that exactly, but i am pretty sure at least one adventhre game from studio, that made another adventure game mry hates because protag was named azriel, did this
It also had multiple characters acting at different areas
Frankly multiple adventure games probably played with this idea.

 

[Jazz_]

In most rpgs I have played you swim in money after a while, I was thinking that it would be cool if there were systems in place to make the earning of money an urgent pursuit. For instance it could be that you need to pay a wage to your party members or else they leave (JA2 did something similar), or perhaps introducing survival mechanics (like your party members need food/clothes other than weapons/armor/etc) although those can easily become tedious if not done right; but yeah whatever adds financial pressure to the player so that he doesn't become Mr. Moneybags with nothing to buy after a while.

 

[Serus]

Cha should be divorced from Beauty like in Arcanum. That's not what the Greeks meant by Charisma.

Beauty as a stat is nonsense anyway. Even in Arcanum it didn't play an important role and if the game wasn't so easy/easy to break no one would make a beautiful character. Because the game isn't particularly challenging people can take it and larp. The thing is - adding stats that are mostly useless is not a good design.
Beauty, if at all relevant (I'd say for CRPGs it rarely is) should be made as a trait that can be picked only at character creation. As two opposed traits pretty/ugly, everyone without any of those two is average. That should be all that is needed for 99% of CRPGs that take beauty into account in a systemic way.
And in the case you responded to, the trait could be lost in a few ways: age if the game tracks it, a battle scar - at least a real reason for bards to stay back in combat. Possibly more.

Its nonsense if whole story is about murderhoboing
If rpg js about court intrigue and you need to outplay 3 other princesses beauty would be more realistic stat than strength

And how many COMPUTER rpgs do you know where gameplay is centered on court intrigue? Exactly. You can theorize about nonexistent genres and games all you want. I'm talking about a genre and games that actually exists.

 

[Tavernking]

I used to think an RPG without hitpoints would be pretty cool, so I started making it. But then I added 'health states', which basically set all creatures to having 3 hitpoints. Then some months later after much internal debate I decided some monsters should have a few extra hitpoints because they're big giants or dragons. Didn't take long after that to throw in the towel and realise why hitpoints exist. I think a lot of your 'cool ideas' would be similar.

 

[Vic]

I used to think an RPG without hitpoints would be pretty cool, so I started making it. But then I added 'health states', which basically set all creatures to having 3 hitpoints. Then some months later after much internal debate I decided some monsters should have a few extra hitpoints because they're big giants or dragons. Didn't take long after that to throw in the towel and realise why hitpoints exist. I think a lot of your 'cool ideas' would be similar.

combat without hitpoints would mean everything has 1 hitpoint ie dies in one hit, no?

 

[Tavernking]

I used to think an RPG without hitpoints would be pretty cool, so I started making it. But then I added 'health states', which basically set all creatures to having 3 hitpoints. Then some months later after much internal debate I decided some monsters should have a few extra hitpoints because they're big giants or dragons. Didn't take long after that to throw in the towel and realise why hitpoints exist. I think a lot of your 'cool ideas' would be similar.

combat without hitpoints would mean everything has 1 hitpoint ie dies in one hit, no?

Yes or a vastly more complicated system which I didn't attempt (real life doesn't have hitpoints)