RPG Writing and Design Needs a Paradigm Shift

[kenada]

Just a small comment: your Melee "box" explains the roll as +Proficiency; but your Missile "box" explains it as +Bow or +Firearms, which then causes a "does not compute" error when Smite tells me to use Mage for a Missile attack.

The intent is you would use Mage in place of Bow or Firearms. I can address that when I find a format and rework combat actions.

 

[pemerton]

The intent is you would use Mage in place of Bow or Firearms. I can address that when I find a format and rework combat actions.

I inferred that intention. I think the Melee set out is logically clearer, that's all.

I do admire that you are working on your game at this level of attention to how you will lay it out.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Even 5 minutes, when a combat round is 6 seconds (or some other very short time), is far longer than your front line is likely to hold out.

In any case, it's clearly not the slightly risky get-out-right-now emergency chute that it once was. Pity.

It is only a pity if your only criteria of evaluation is how much your game conforms to 1970's D&D...

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Just a small comment: your Melee "box" explains the roll as +Proficiency; but your Missile "box" explains it as +Bow or +Firearms, which then causes a "does not compute" error when Smite tells me to use Mage for a Missile attack.

Yeah, there's a lot of this sort of thing in my game too, lol. Stuff changes, it gets hard to even remember what the current rule is, let alone fix everything. Takes a lot of labor to make large complex RPGs...

 

[GMMichael]

Agreed about the 3.x piece; the issue there was 3.x took the risk of instant death out of Teleport that had made it a bit of a gamble in 1-2e, which immediately broke the spell.

My teleport (Exit 6) carries three risks: its casting cost could be enough to render the caster catatonic, it requires six actions to cast (and a lot could happen in that time), and its difficulty could mean that it fails during the casting. But it'll move at least 6 targets up to 1,000 meters, in one round or less.

@Reynard , is the OP looking for a few short pages of rules, like this?

Rules Catalog | Modos RPG | Obsidian Portal

Here are the five standard rules modules that make up Modos RPG. These modules are free to use and replicate under a Creative Commons license (read here) when y

modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com

 

[Reynard]

My teleport (Exit 6) carries three risks: its casting cost could be enough to render the caster catatonic, it requires six actions to cast (and a lot could happen in that time), and its difficulty could mean that it fails during the casting. But it'll move at least 6 targets up to 1,000 meters, in one round or less.

@Reynard , is the OP looking for a few short pages of rules, like this?

Rules Catalog | Modos RPG | Obsidian Portal

Here are the five standard rules modules that make up Modos RPG. These modules are free to use and replicate under a Creative Commons license (read here) when y

modos-rpg.obsidianportal.com

These look more like a design bible than a final presentation to me, but I don't see why it could not be adapted into a concise finished product.

However, I don't just want to see terse information. I want to see the overall design of the information to be pushed toward attractive utility, leveraging not just concise language but visual cues, infographics, innovative layout and the like. The Mothership beta (or whatever it is called) is a really great example of what you can do in this regard.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think that, while presentation is a vital thing, that system design is the key. Simple, but not overly so, clear and direct, but cohering in sophisticated ways to make a good whole. D&D always struck me, in my youth, as a weird game design. Half of it seems genius in central concept, but the execution is oddly off. Like the categories of saving throws, they're just arbitrary. Armor class is backwards, for no really discernible reason. d20 controls combat, but the blindingly obvious idea of a generalized d20 resolution mechanic is oddly missing. And all that odd gimpy design is glued onto a basically super elegant core of character power progression and graded challenges that sucks in the players and drives endless replay. Presentation, well it started bad, but they did learn!