EPIC the roleplaying game will soon ready for sale!
Jason Stokes
In article <01bd1d6c$2b3048a0$69fffed0@default>, BOTH...@msn.com
<BOTH...@msn.com> wrote:
>EPIC the roleplaying game is nearly complete and we will soon be taking
>orders. We have a downscaled version available for play now, and you can
>chech out the purchasing information for the full game at:
>
>http://www.angelfire.com/mo/vrindex/index.html
As a compulsive game designer myself (I have a 35,000 word RPG on my HD
that's almost at the playtest stage) I feel compelled to comment....
Hmm... separate attribute systems for male and female characters.
*Bad* design decision -- the sex differences aren't large enough to be
bothered with, especially for heroes. Any attempt to do this just ends
up in sexist stereotyping.
The "use your own IQ as your character's IQ" idea is cute, but pretty
unworkable. Real IQ tests of course run to hundreds of pages and
involve lots of number crunching -- and even then, nobody's quite sure
what they're measuring. Useful if you already know your IQ, I guess,
but that varies with test and context. And why's your character smart
just because you do well on the Stanford-Binet?
Oh, here we have a character class system. Character class systems are
just old hat, sorry.
Here's a hint: Strike all two letter and three letter acronyms from
your game. Refer to "Intelligence" as "Intelligence" every time, not
INT. Refer to "Action Total" as "Action Total" every time, not AT.
The only exception is (possibly) formulas and tables. Apply this
principle consistently and you'd be amazed how readable your game
becomes.
Try getting rid of as many tables as possible too. This forces you to
come up with general principles and rules for play, rather
than saying "Oh, I'll draw up a table to limit race advancement.
Dwarves can't advance beyond 9 levels as a wizard, humans can't go
beyond 7, and I'll make some more arbitrary rules while I'm at it.
Basically, the AD&D influence is showing, and it's not healthy. Sorry.
--
Jason Stokes: j.stokes (at) bohm.anu.edu.au
I use a spam block. Replace (at) with @ to discover my email address.