I've always fancied a light mechanic for my games. I do not enjoy the tedium of linking attributes to skills to feats to adjusted totals and adding certain dice rolls to acheive an equally cryptifying target number. It's all too mechanical. As a GM I would rather let players get away with dramatic actions based on their describing of their happening as an element of the story than of rolling a die well, and not just because rolling poorly seems to be a running theme among my game-playing friends.
So I've been trying to assemble a game that we might play (although I admit that we are so far into our 30's and 40's that we'll never stop playing D&D, but I wouldn't mind starting my daughter off right) that lets players drift through trivial obstacles and combats without the tedium and randomness of die rolls. I posit some of my ideas here for comment, since I'm fairly alone in my development of anything of this nature, as it would stray so far from the well-worn path of my bretheren.
I'm going to note a few other game systems here, and I ask you not to think harshly of me for those that I choose, even if they are unpopular. As I suppose many of you also do, I have a strange habit of buying just about any game that looks like it has potential, RPG or otherwise. Passing through the Magic: The Gathering heyday still wanting to roleplay, I find myself not afraid of non-standard systems when picking up my random reading. I suppose all I really needed to say here is that my library is not limited to d20.
The first couple of games I want to mention as favorites for specific reasons are card games. They're not necessarily CCGs, but they use cards for a kind of mechanic. Everway, published at one time by WotC, uses cards to allow players to imagine their characters. The cards in Everway are paintings, and don't have stats or numbers. You choose a set of cards and create a story about your character using those cards. Rather than drafting everything about your character via numbers, the emphasis is on background and story. You'll note as you start that when you have a good background, it's likely easier to then follow through with allocation of points for character abilities.
Everway had something in common with the second card game that I want to mention in its magic system. Both Everway and Dragonlance 5th Age (using the Saga system) had powers that were quantified by basic traits. If a power could affect change to the game world, then it was worth a point. If it could also be used frequently (on demand rather than once a week, say), then it would be worth an additional point. The 5th Age rules added a few more criteria for things such as range, but was essetially a pared-down magic system that was story based, and relegated spells with predefined levels and requirements to the tomes of classic RPG.
Something neat about Saga was its use of cards in the game system. Another game like this was the Dragonstorm CCG. Dragonstorm had a couple of huge failings in my mind, especially in comparison to 5th Age. First, it was a CCG, so it was difficult to get a complete set of cards to play a real game with. Second, the character types were limited to a base card plus a few modifying cards, rather than letting a player piece together a character from several modifying cards. Third, the GM card set didn't give a real feel for the world or for how to play the system. The idea of "tapping" cards for powers that were used was good but underutilized.
The thing that Saga and Dragonstorm share that I like is that you have a hand of cards from which you pool your power. You dictate your fate to some degree, not just a random die. If you want to use more effort to defeat a foe, you use the more powerful card in your hand. If you think you can take him with one hand behind your back, maybe you use a lesser card. The point is that your behavior in choosing what card to use is comparative to your character's attitude in approaching the challenge, thus more attuned to the roleplaying experience. It is similarly rare in games based on d20 to get the opportunity to power a task with sheer will or to hold back when the number on the character sheet says plainly "8" and the die comes up randomly.
On the flip side, there is still a randomness involved. Should your hand be filled with low numbers, you're having a bad day. Likewise, high numbers make it seem like you're on a roll. The nice thing about this is that it perpetuates the idea of playing the role. Maybe your charater is superstitious, and can attribute the run of coming luck, good or bad, to an in-game event. You can play it up because you know to some degree in advance what your luck will be.
In drafting my own system (and I don't intend to impart a complete view here, just solidify some mental notes for your review and, hopefully, comment) I want to incorporate the nice bits from these systems and eliminate the chaff. So where does the chaff lie?
One major problem with these systems is that they require dedicated hardware. You need the printed cards. They use non-standard decks and in all cases more than a reasonable number of cards.
Strangely, upon arriving at the realization that a standard pack of poker cards is what I needed for my system, I noticed that there are significantly more places to buy playing cards than there are places to buy d20s. In the name of doing some research, I bought two packs of cards for under $4 at a local drug store on the way home from work. They were ridiculously easy to obtain, and since our local Wizards store has gone belly up, probably a lot easier than getting a d20. Even in regard to price, it balances out when you consider that you only need one pack of cards to fuel a game of four, and you probably require more than 4 pricey polyhedral dice.
I'm still playing around with some of the basic ideas for this system,
but I suppose that I should get into the meat of the ideas on which I'm basing actions, and then uncover how the cards come into play.
There are four main attributes, each associated to a suit of the deck as you might expect. For now, this association is trivial - in name only. I plan to offer no bonus to in-suit actions as does the Saga system. I find this mechanic too cumbersome and would prefer that cards fly quickly about the table and their totals be readily apparent. This is not the case in using a suit-bonus scenario.
The four main attributes would be your standard Strength, Agility, Will, and Essence. These attributes would be average at a rating of five. Right now I'm conceiving of a point allocation system rather than a random assignment of numbers, which would enable balancing to this center number (20 points). More heroic campaigns could start with a higher base of points (24 points), which may be the default in my fantasy setting.
Strength would encompass physical strength, as well as strength of body. Agility is the speed and flexibility that is assigned to the character. The Will rating represents the capability of reasoning and a character's determination. Essence is a character's tie to his soul and his ability to call on his spiritual energy. All of these should be reasonably familiar, since they're common across most game systems.
I will address differently one thing that bugs me about gaming systems these days. I do not like that you advance equally in combative skills and in all other skills. An intelligent fighter in d20 could dump all of his skill points into a skill that makes no sense and instantly become the most skilled practitioner of that skill in the party. That's nonsense.
I've been thinking that I would separate the skills into combative and non-combative skills. I would call combat skills "Maneuvers" and all other skills "Skills". Hopefully, characters would advance both socially and combatively this way. Players won't have to agonize over whether they want to learn some local folklore (which could be very valuable) or instead get that next level of sword mastery.
I like the skill system that Eden's Unisystem uses. Rather than having a set list of skills to which players add points (like d20), players choose which skills they like, and spend preset point costs. I would also like to include in some way the concept of Exalted power chains. In Exalted, the powers (I think they're called Charms) stage from their basest level - Your lighting bolt can get more powerful by adding on a different, probably more potent effect. I'm not sure how this would fit in with the system yet, but there is certainly room within a combat maneuver architecture to include such a thing.
After all of the attributes and skills are allocated to a character, he is ready to go. To perform an action, a player would combine the appropriate attribute with any points provided by his skills. The total of these numbers would be added to the play of a card (more on this to follow) which would for an average character performing with average abilities amount to about 10. That is, the difficulty/target number for an average task should be 10.
Card use- Here's where I'm bringing in some of the more intricate details of using the cards. These ideas sound original to me, but as we come to realize, everything has prior art. Here goes:
During regular interactive gameplay (not combat), players have a full hand of cards at all times. A full hand consists of a number of cards equal to their Will rating. Some skills might increase or decrease the size of a player's hand, as might some effects on their characters. During unstressful play, players can simply redraw their played cards.
Cards are played using their numeric value. If you play a 4 of Hearts, you get to add 4 points to your attribute and bonuses. If you overlook the face cards and aces, players will succeed at tasks of average difficulty about half of the time.
Face cards, when played alone, add only 5 points to the point total. Face cards can be played with a single number card and any number of other face cards, adding 5 points for each face card. Two kings and a 4 adds 14 to the attribute score and bonuses. Each face card played "stages up" the effect for which the card was used. Fireballs become stronger, sword thrusts become more deadly.
Aces are the special case used for critical hits. A player can play an ace on its own and use it as a 1. Alternatively, a player can opt to take the next card from the deck to add to the 1. If the total after the draw is a failure, the failure is catastrophic. A drawn face card counts as 5, and no additional card is drawn.
On his turn, a player can play any number of cards from his hand that he wishes. Each number card (or ace) counts as one action for that round. Keep in mind that it is possible to dodge. Saving a good card to dodge rather than going on a full-out attack might be a good idea, but strategy might show that taking three attacks could kill something that a defence would never repel. This type of thing is not only possible, but more obvious than in many other games I've played.
And, of course, the catch: A player may only redraw cards as a factor of the character's Agility. So you might blow three attack actions on the first round rather than defend, but on the next round you'll be winded and may only get a weak defence while you recover.
I don't want to immediately taint my virgin ideas by reading how others have prepared similar systems using playing cards. As a result, I would prefer (if you would be so kind) comments on the material I have presented rather than a direction to look at some other game system. I assure you that I will look at other systems and might request your input on that at a later time, but I'm interested in potential weak areas or ways that I can strengthen what I have more than reading how someone else does it. I feel like I've done enough theft as it is.
