Playing testing has revealed that we inadvertently mucked up the simplicity of the system. What we came to realize was that we had fallen into a trap of having different rules for different types of skills. Skill for Melee, Missiles and Spells were each getting their own rules set. This was a very sad realization and a violation of the games creed. "Keep it simple."
What is most interesting is that the rules actually worked very well. They were fair, gave good mechanics is play, but it was overly complicated as the rules were significantly different for: Missiles, Melee and Spells. Sadly all this work on Spells and Missiles will be abandoned. The spells points concept is dead. The rate of fire concept for missiles is dead. We are back to basics, and while not as detailed it is much much easier to learn, remember and most importantly PLAY!
So expect in the next few weeks to see a new draft of the Rules released at: D100 Open Melee System
...and Happy New Year!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Spells Spells Spells
Lately there has been some debate about how we are handling spells. The problem seems to be that at low skill level they are not powerful enough to be worth while and spell casters get bored in melee. At high level they still are not powerful enough. So in general magic is viewed as too weak and too slow. A fair observation.
The way to fix it has become a conundrum however. The discussion has been wide. Alternate ways have been discussed some are structured after novels but ultimately all of those have been dismissed as too structured and confining. In d100 we had more less followed the D20 model where a spell's level defined how often per day it could be cast. While this was simple it was not particularly fair to the caster who at skill level 1, would cast that spell 1 time per day.
So what we are play testing now is a way to increase the number of times a spell can be cast. We are testing a points based system. Once again our overriding goal is simplicity. This is not easy to achieve, we are currently going with a sort of scaled points system based on cost of the spell. Total number of points being a function of willpower and intelligence. I'll post more when some testing has occurred.
The way to fix it has become a conundrum however. The discussion has been wide. Alternate ways have been discussed some are structured after novels but ultimately all of those have been dismissed as too structured and confining. In d100 we had more less followed the D20 model where a spell's level defined how often per day it could be cast. While this was simple it was not particularly fair to the caster who at skill level 1, would cast that spell 1 time per day.
So what we are play testing now is a way to increase the number of times a spell can be cast. We are testing a points based system. Once again our overriding goal is simplicity. This is not easy to achieve, we are currently going with a sort of scaled points system based on cost of the spell. Total number of points being a function of willpower and intelligence. I'll post more when some testing has occurred.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
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