Unique Systematic Elements

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Unique Systematic Elements
Tweet Topic Started: Nov 10 2010, 07:13 PM (347 Views)
-The Raging Zephyr-	Nov 10 2010, 07:13 PM Post #1
The Winds of Change Posts: 1,254 Group: Elite Member #11 Joined: March 7, 2007	You know, I kind of like this thread: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=537298 The fact of the matter is, I've been researching how to make a unique and entertaining PbP RPG system for a while, ever since I worked on SSBRP a good four years ago. I think the system is the main thing that kicked my ass as far as making Shihirin a successor to SSBRP went, since A. I didn't really WANT a system since I was bred on free-form. B. The people didn't know what they wanted. C. One of the two people helping me for the system wanted to do things her way instead of letting me do the job I took up. She helped make the story, now she wants total control over all of my decision making? The thread above reminded me of when I thought about how utilizing Xenosaga's action point system would work in a PbP environment, except perhaps it adds a more logical step of AP as both your Actions for the turn and your acting Initiative. It also works rather well as far as tabletop goes, as far as I'm concerned, and it does offer a solution to what I think a game like D&D is lacking: Making initiative a big part of combat. To me, it's silly that in D&D the Wizards, Fighters, and Rogues all act in the same order every single turn. Granted, the Rogues are more than likely to have the first attack which means dealing gratuitous amounts of damage to anyone that hasn't acted in combat yet, but aside from that there's no real advantages to having initiative. Likewise, it's baffling how Wizards can be so powerful with their spell selections and how there's rules in the book for interrupting spells during their casting time, but all of the spells either take an absurd amount of time to cast (out of combat spells), cast instantly, or cast before the beginning of the next turn (which is hardly ever used, and is typically only an issue during the casting of a Summon spell.) I think using AP in the D&D example would change things for the better, where nimble Rogues can take action multiple times before anyone else can, or where Wizards have to pay off an AP debt in order to cast a powerful spell. Plus, it solves the issue that most gaming groups have where the suspension of disbelief states that all combat rounds last six seconds of game time, whereas in the real world it feels like a bunch of individual actions take place instead of all at once, and overall ends up taking upwards of five minutes to resolve six seconds of space. The one system where I've seen AP used is actually a computer game by the name of Fallout. In that, everyone starts with an allotment of AP at the beginning of a round, with faster characters having bigger AP allotments. AP there is used in differing manners, from 1 AP to move a single space, to 3~5 AP to make a regular attack, an extra +1 AP to use a called shot to a body part (for extra critical hit chances and better critical tables), 2 AP to reload a weapon, 3 AP to access the inventory to switch weapons or use items, etc. My gripe with that system is that it basically uses a turn-by-turn initiative as well, and any APs left over from last turn are tacked onto the character's dodge percentage (Turn-by-turn isn't entirely true, as the game uses a sort of CT system like Final Fantasy Tactics or Final Fantasy X where, under most circumstances, turns operate as normal. However, occasionally a faster character will get a turn interjected elsewhere, sometimes directly after their last turn.) Using AP to dodge is an interesting concept in its own since it can be used to simulate a character's overexertion of themselves. If we used APs to perform any action, we could also have 1 AP be spent to equal a dodge attempt, which would let Rogues get more chances to outright avoid attacks and make spellcasting Wizards who are too caught up in their own magic unable to defend themselves as well. Heck, if it worked by Fallout's example, where reserved AP adds to defence, it pretty much ends up the same way where a Rogue who keeps their attacks sudden and carefully would have more defence than a Wizard who spent all their APs on spellcasting, or a Fighter who spent all their APs deciding to wreck shit. Back to AP as Initative, more than one person asked "What about it being so that the person with the most AP at the moment acts next?" which adds a nice little touch on its own. It works well for a Wizard casting spells (say that the spell goes off the next time the Wizard's AP count comes up), but causes a bit of issues with the fast characters in "What do I do if I don't want to spend APs at the moment?" I suppose there could be something like reserving APs for the next round and deliberately pushing yourself down on the AP chart, but that might be too abusive and complex. AP as Initiative requires quite a bit of thought, but could be used with some dramatic and tactical results. Someone else mentions "What if APs count up, and if you get too high you end up losing actions or defences?" I've seen this used once in the most recent MechWarrior clix game. In that, you get two or three actions per turn, but you can take extra actions at the cost of temporarily reducing your unit's statistics (Reasoning being that most units are mechs and can build up to a specific amount of Heat, but that can be overexerted in emergencies as a gambit.) Warmachine and Hordes use a similar sort of system, but where Warmachine counts down, Hordes counts up. In Warmachine, your army leader only gets so much AP per turn to give to your other units so that they can act, but in Hordes your leader can only TAKE so many AP from units (Because units build up AP in Hordes.) I dunno, I figured it was an interesting thing to bring up. I'd also set up a side discussion on how much Rock-Paper-Scissors gameplay influences gaming, but I figured I'd leave that for another time.



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