I know that I've mentioned writing a book several times in the past and haven't come through on that, but I've got some ideas and I think it might actually happen this time.
Although, it's not going to be a read-through book, necessarily. I'm thinking about creating a new RPG. People might ask, "Why bother when you have so many games already/the games that are out now are already so popular?" Well, I need to address some issues with the current state of my games.
I'm gaining more acceptance of the state of affairs in our D&D sessions. I've never been happy with the way things work, and although I (and others) espouse a more roleplaying-friendly credo, I don't really champion it. I think that a good group of roleplayers can make any decent world come alive, no matter how horrid the actual rules are. So the problem is really inherent to the players, of which I am one. Suffice to say that nobody in our group is helping me overcome this difficulty, and I'm just coming to accept that the way we're playing the game is the way the game will be played.
What does this consist of? Well, I suppose that I am to make a character by the rules, but in such a way that he is "effective". "Effective" means that I should cheat and use cheesy tricks and game loopholes (heretofore reffered to as cheese) to be sure that he doesn't die upon seeing a kobold in the wild. After creating this character, I need to pit him against a series of Monster Manual-borne plots that are loosly joined by bits of downtime that involve primarily spending gold and being told where more monsters live.
As usual, I'm hyperbolizing for effect. But I feel a need to include more role-playing aspects in my role-playing games, and this might be the burden of the system to enforce.
There are a few other issues, too, such as the fact that there is never anyone who wants to use a new system. Well, I should rephrase that. Either the desire to use a new system is given lip service, or there just isn't time in our gaming schedule to do anything other than play a game that everyone can agree on.
I also don't like some aspects of charater creation and advancement. I don't like the speed with which characters advance in D&D, for example. Maybe "speed" is the wrong word. I don't buy into advancing with classes, and I don't think that the geometric progression of per-level XP for skill/feat additions is really fair. Plus the 20-level top limit for non-epic characters seems arbitrary.
I don't like that the core books rarely provide a view of the world with enough hooks to actually play the game. Using D&D as an example once again, you need at least three books to play out an adventure with any supplied background. Here's my thought (and I realize this is false for at least one glaring reason): If you know nothing about RPGs and fantasy, you can't play the game with just the Player's Handbook. Likewise, you're not even really complete by adding the Dungeon Master's Guide. You really only get the full picture when you add the Forgotten Realms book to the mix, and you still can't really play becaue you've only got the stats for about 8 monsters (in the back of the DMG).
Those are some of my problems - why I don't like the current crop of games. Lets talk about stuff I do like.
There are game mechanics I like a lot. I really like some of the mechanics behind Unkown Armies. I think that if you are better at fighting, you are better at doing damage when you fight. If you are a boxer, you are trained to knock people out. The bias in many games leans toward using strength for damage - if you're stronger, then you do more. Unknown Armies takes into account (to a certain degree with melee, and moreso with firearms) the skill of the combatant when figuring damage, rather than just their strength. I like that.
I also like a more freeform skill selection. I think that TFOS-style skill picking might be a little much for people used to D&D skills and feats. In TFOS, you just make up "knacks" and whenever they apply you get the bonus you've selected. This type of thing is really good for roleplay, but not so good for keeping character balance, which is also imporant. The idea of having rules at all somewhat implies that you want order applied to the outcome of the game.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer system, Unisystem, is pretty good in this regard. It lets you pick Qualities that give you certain advantages. You select these Qualities from a list, but the book explicitly says that you can create your own (more on this later). The Qualities all seem pretty balanced when you omit the class-style ones (like Slayer, which is just overpowered, and rightfully so for that particular game).
Another thing I like about Unisystem is that it makes an explicit effort to tell you that if you don't like something or you need the system to do something differently or something new, you can change it. I think these notes are in the D&D books somewhere, but my group tends to ignore them completely. I know that it's in the White Wolf books, and White Wolf games tend to be a bit more freeform, but we still usually abide by the letter of the rulebooks. Including a notice in each section about how you might consider changing the established rules is a great thing in my opinion.
So with a few of these tenets in hand, and new ones forming as I progress, I'm going to try to form a new RPG. One I would like to play.
This one's going to be comprehensive. I've got a basic outline already of what needs to be done. I'm going to jam everything into a single book. There is no separate player/storyteller/monster/world guide. Everything fits into the one book.
I've been talking to people and kind of hashing out a brand new world that the game can take place in. The general idea would be a kind of modern world meets fantasy, but not in a Shadowrun way of resurrected magic. It would be more like the technology had invaded the fantasy in pockets. I don't want to give too much away until I'm ready to finalize my vision for the world, but I'm hoping that it will be compelling and provide plenty of interesting story potential.
I have been trying to think of a way that a person armed with this single book could play an adventure all by himself. My current thought for a mechanic involves a deck of regular playing cards. Cards would then be used to resolve all game challenges/obstacles. It would work the same whether you are playing by yourself or with other people.
Oh, and that's another thing. All third person singular pronouns will be "he". I'm not going to use "she" because it's progressive, and I'm not going to alternate pronouns between chapters. Let's face it, gang - not only is it proper English, but we're mostly boys anyway. Potential girl players aren't going to be turned off by reading "he" and are going to be any more turned on by reading "she". Nobody cares. Feminazis need not read my book, ok?
The game will include not only ready-to-play information, but meta-information so that if something isn't included in the book, players can construct their own balanced additions. This would be like creating a new monster in D&D. If there was no such thing as a boarweavil, you'd have rules to create such a thing so that it did what you wanted and was appropriately balanced for use with other players.
There are a few other things that I want to accomplish, but I don't want to give all of my secrets away.
My plan is to just start writing. I figure on around 1000 words a day on average, which is really not much at all. I might eventually finish and edit. When I'm done, I'll format it all for a small-sized book (5x8?) and publish it via CafePress for $20 or under and buy myself a copy. This should be entertaining.
I'll try to post updates here as I complete sections or anything that I think is worthwhile to note about the new system. Comments or suggestions are welcome.
