Other worlds altogether

[CroakerDogBoy]

I was talking to Iron Maul on another forum a while back and he got me to thinking about something. There are certain things that I think are important to a game system, and I was curious as to how well received some of those things would be. For instance as setting I was thinking low magic (High Magic seems to be covered pretty well).

Meaning, low level spells could be cast, like Glamours and such, more misdirection then walls of fire. Perhaps with lay lines and special places or items a person could cast a fireball.

Now, I like the concept of no professions. I feel like professions tend to pigeonhole a character. Let them take the skills available and do their own complete concept.

I like skill packages, but more as their career path. For instance the character could be any age, but you would split their life from say 12 up into four year chunks were you try for different jobs that would help define your skills and starting equipment. I also like the idea of forcing a person to roll for entry into a career with perhaps mods from prior careers and ability scores to allow them to take the job for that chunk.

I really am against alignment in any form. I have always felt like that was another limiting factor. If your character does good things one day and bad the next then that should be allowed.

As far as mechanics. I do like the 1-100 range on statistics such as strength, but I sort of even feel that this is limiting. If a person has an IQ of 170 they are in like the 99.99999 percentile in intelligence. The flat system I don't think allows for this extreme bell curve. There are no outliers.

I like detail, in armor, in combat etc. I am not certain this is a popular belief anymore though.

Just some things I was wondering about.

[CroakerDogBoy]

Also, I think there should be no races other then human. But with different human races.

For instance British, American etc. There are differences enough, some extreme in real world cultures and physical makeup to model them and give variety.

I like random generation in most aspects for a character, rather then a points system or selection.

[dutch206]

Since everyone plays elves and dwarves like they were human anyway, I see no problem with that.

[Rick Hansen]

Hey Croaker, regarding our discussion the other day I looked up I.C.E's "Pirates" souce book, there's two and a half pages dedicated to useing magic in the pirate setting.
It advises that PC not be magic users unless they want to live a short character life (the inquisition burning you at the stake is a major deterent). In it you have the witch/warlock and the shaman proffessions. It also gives ideas on the type of spells and restrictions, such as no pyrotech type spells no sheild spells etc. It advises that magic should be very subtle and unseen and takes considerable amount of time to cast with unusual spell components etc. Of course this is just for your basic pirate adventure setting but it's good food for thought if you want to run a low magic setting. Thinking about it, a blend of blackpowder technology and low magic influence would make for an interesting and fun game(something I'd love to play in).

[dutch206]

Can you imagine the effect one priest could have with just the "Weather Ways" spell list?   

[Rick Hansen]

Hehe, yeah and I'd bet he'd get a pretty good cut of the spoils too. Although I think you'd have to have a much smaller list of spells, the current lists are not intended for low magic settings.
A pirate adventure on a ship with a sea witch could be doable for a low magic game. That's sounds like something you'd find in a TGA issue 

[CroakerDogBoy]

the current lists are not intended for low magic settings

That's one of the things I have noticed. I'm trying to run A Game of Thrones with RMSS. Magic is incredibly limited there, which severely cuts down on professions and such. I would like to do away with professions altogether, but they are tied pretty tight into RMSS. Trying to do Black Ops is just sort of odd for me. Since the justification for professions was they were tied into the characters early apprenticeship, and we tend not to have much apprenticeship in modern times.

When I was starting my campaign, the guys looked at all the profession lists and said "You mean we can be fighter, rogue, thief, outrider, sage or barbarian? That's it?" Of course the sage was less then popular.

So I was thinking of things I liked from various games, and was curious to see if what I liked was actually something others would be interested in, or if I am just a strange detail freak who should be chained in the attic.

A pirate adventure on a ship with a sea witch could be doable for a low magic game

That is interesting.

[LordMiller]

there is the "All No Profession" model. . .or in RMSS "All Laymen". . . .you'd be surprised. . .if every PC and NPC is one profession, then everyone varies based on their skill choices.

You might think that "But my soldier's OB is so low." only in comparrison to a fighter, since everyone is No-Profession, if you two rank a skill every level, you are better at it without the artifical boost of a profession/level bonus. . .

[jasonbrisbane]

HI,

I know the Pirates setting is good and I always wanted to play that setting.
Also Vikings was good too for that sort of thing.

PLus I always liked the HARN setting and rules... Very good low magic stuff in there..
(RIP N Robin Crosby - Creator of Harn)