Sounds good to me. I have a few ideas already.
Something with no preset setting is the best, in my opinion.
Point-based creation as standard for the game, but if it's somehow feasible with dice, add dice-creation as an option.
For an RPG, the basics have to be simplistic, and so should combat. But options are always good, so it would be somewhere in the middle, a light core, but with more rules-heavy options.
As for combat, I would suggest making it a bit like Shadowrun and other games like that. You pit your combat skill against your opponent's to determine the outcome. Ranged combat is a standard skill check to hit your opponent.
It doesn't really matter to me what kind of dice I roll, but percentile dice have a nice precision.
If we're using D100 for skill checks, how about this:
To succeed on a die-roll, you want to roll as high as possible on the dice without going over your skill. If two people are opposing each other, highest successful roll wins. If they both fail, lowest failed roll gets hosed worse. (This is so someone who has a really high skill can fail non-catastrophically.)
Characters have the option of 'pushing' their rolls - you just add a multiple of 10 to the number rolled. If you have a 93% skill, you can push it by 20, and if you roll 73 or less, it's a success worth 20 points more than your roll. Get a 74 or higher, though, and it's a failure. (This is useful if skills can go over 100% - gives you something to do with the extra points.)
I'm down with this — I've been messing with putting together working RP Gs for a while. I usually lean toward fluff-heavy and crunch-less stuff, though.
For having no preset setting: this does permit far more freedom and room to work with, but not having a direction can make development far harder. D&D was developed with sword & sorcery settings in mind, so they have more stuff for combat and magic. Wo D was for supernatural horror, so there are stuff for balancing demon magics and totally losing your shit. Nobilis was... or... attempted or... tried to depict God-like beings messing with reality; so RNG went byebye and fluff drove the game.
Though — coming up with a setting will quickly lead this to nowhere. So how about having a set theme or philosophy? Maybe the conflict resolution system presents two people fighting for one thing as a comparison of emotional/dramatic dedication, or people succeed at things by reallocating their personal resources. Or something like that.
It's possible to tell a story with numbers, dice choice and crunch alone; I think this will give the project enough flavor to keep people working on it.
"Good year and model, but Vladimir Putin is strangling journalists in the back seat."Lolipod: That would work, if we decide the game 'needs' crits. (And rolling exactly 00 is always a failure, even if you have a skill of 200%?)
One thing we should decide early on: Is the game going to be 'sim' style (like D&D or Rune Quest, where tactics and gear-choosing are ultra-important), or more 'story' style (like RISUS or Hero Quest, where character traits and improvisation are more important)?
Good thinkin' here.
Unknown Armies uses a similar dice-roll mechanic, though the crits aren't exactly the same in it. I don't think that's a problem, though- there are plenty of similar systems, for e.g. Shadowrun 4 and Wo D.
Arbane: Story-style, where your character itself is more important than your gear, but with a certain amount of "realism" within the system. Gear choice shouldn't be THAT important. Most weapons should have comparable damage, depending on the size of the weapon. For example, one-handed weapons could do 1D6 damage, whatever the weapon may be, with two-handed weapons doing 2D6.
I think we should take a bit of inspiration from Adeptus Evangelion in regards to combat. Each body part (Head, Body, Arms and Legs) could have a number of HP, with varying effects when they reach certain thresholds. With LD's idea to use D6s for damage.
I really don't think crits and auto-fails are necessary. I think the skill test itself should indicate if it's possible or not, by modifying the skill itself (allowing for skills over 100%), and using degrees of success as "crits".
In other words, the only factors should be the character's competence and the difficulty of the task.
I like wuxia. And also Urban Fantasy.
Surely it should be about kung fu cars hopping on trench coats and duking it out industrially in the sky.
"Good year and model, but Vladimir Putin is strangling journalists in the back seat."If /tg/ can do it, why couldn't we?
For character creation, definitely Point Buy. That way no player (including myself) can bitch over another one having the unfair advantage of a luckier character creation. Besides, Honest Rolls Characters remind me too much of FATAL ever since I've read the liveblog.
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."The two things that really need to be decided on first are how cinematic/realistic and how silly silly/serious it should be
the first will be important for how every mechanic works and the second can lead to alot of conflict if there isn't a decision made early on
Edit: I'd prefer mostly realistic and mostly serious
edited 5th Jan '11 12:46:01 PM by Kzickas
Huh? You mean that each character would have a value for realisticness and seriousness? I don't think that would work cinematic/realistic is stuff like wether 1 strong character can kill 100s of mooks at the same time. Which would be a game system wide thing. If you did have a player value for that then realistic characters would be extremely underpowered
Kzickass, that sort of ties in with my suggestion of picking the genre first. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that realistic systems look similar while the others are goofy in their own particular way. In any event, otherwise realistic systems can include "hero points". "action points" and similar bottled luck that characters can use when things get a bit too realistic.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are probably right.Seeing as how this is tvtropes, we should attempt to reflect some amount universality, but first apply the rules to a setting that is largely acceptable. While the urge to suggest some sort of "Tropetopia" is strong, I feel as if it would be some what cheesy. If someone else can phrase that idea in such a way that I don't get to much of a remembrance of Big eyes small mouth, though, I would love you forever.
My vote is thrown in for the "Roll under, but near" (Heretofore known as Rubn (Or Reuben)) dice system. As for how criticals -might- work, Every "Push" counts as a "Critical level," Effectively making whatever stunt you want to do more awesome, or some stunts would require a certain number of pushes.
I vote for a style where rules are modular, able to be applied if wanted, but not really needed. Eg. You wouldn't treat throwing a spear as any different as swinging one, unless you were playing a game where that kind of thing was important.
As for character creation, Definitely point buy. Though we should put an emphasis on Suggested values, and offer alternatives for different settings. Should the ability to fly cost as much in a Medieval world as it does in a sci-fi one? I think not, but I'm open to change.
CAPS LOCK IS RAGE!!!I had an extra couple of minutes the other day and this thread popped into my head. So I wrote down a basic idea for some setting(s), Its a little cheesy, and I'm by no means a good writer, but I'll dump it for everyone to over view.
The all encompassing idea that is Unitrope exists forever in flux. New worlds form, and old ones fade. Some who have attempted to live there have tried to understand the world. But they have only understood Their world.
The most ancient the most mysterious lands in all of Unitrope is Fantenisia. A land where life is simple, the technology is burgeoning and the magic is strong. (Fantasy Land)
Its Sister land, One that long ago stopped relying on the unknowable mysteries that fuel magic, that has long ago focused on the self, and the power that come from its own study, is known as Scierra. It has mastered Time, Space, and even the Mind. Artificial life forms live along side Humans and other, more foreign, species. (Science Land)
Finally, the land between the two, Where hope for the future and Reverence for the past fuels the present, exists the land known as Mod. (Modern Land)
These lands are separated by a great divide, a divide that at first seems impenetrable, Genre. This divide manifests it self as a barrier between Dimensions. Each world, when looking at itself, finds the others, but it can not be reached or touched. The Strongest Of Scrying magics in Fantenisia can see the The world of Mod, and Scierra, but Try as they might, they can not Conjure any part of them. The people of Mod sit in reflection, considering the present, and when they think of the past they find themselves viewing the world known as Fantenesia, But try as the might, it can not be reasoned out, or affected in any way. When they dream of the future they find them selves in the world of Scierra, but as with any dream, are unable to bring it back with them to the waking world. Scierra, for all of its mastery of Time and space, can find no way to penetrate the veil of genre that they have found. They might glimpse echoes of the past through the strongest of their time sciences, they can never reach out and grab them with their mastery of space. There are whisperings though, of places where the divide of Genre is weaker… where the Future shall meet the past.
I thought this approach would make it a little bit easier to jump through multiple settings and incorporate the Modular rules idea.
edited 8th Feb '11 12:42:00 PM by Voot
CAPS LOCK IS RAGE!!!I have a fondness for a bell curve, but I don't think we just want to play GURPS, so maybe Percentiles? Though a couple of d6 is always nice.
Actually, Lets do something crazy and show some love for the d12s! 2d12Could be nice, max number 24, lowest number two, average number (lucky) 13. 1/144 for a 2, (Pretty uncommon), 12/144, (1/12) not very common.
Being criminally unlucky, I prefer a bell curve for some sense of fairness, though others might feel otherwise. Are d12s a good idea? or are they too gimmicky?
(As a side note, If any one wants to actually make better names for the lands, PLEASE DO SO. Mine are craptacular.)
CAPS LOCK IS RAGE!!!I'd say d12s are a bit gimmicky- you don't wanna piss people off by making them have to buy too many extra dice, and a lot of people have either one or no d12s.
Land names? Cydonia for fantasy (after the Greek Goddess of Heroism, and allows Knights of Cydonia; the Science-Fiction one's tough without knowing what style we're going for- space opera? Hard scifi? I'd suggest something like Artifexia, except that's a bit poor.
Modern? Dunno.

Because why the hell not.
Stuff to consider:
* Universal (ie no setting, just a system) v. One setting (Like DND)
Anyone up for it?
Underneath the bridge The tarp has sprung a leak And the animals I've trapped have all become my pets