Cogito, ergo ludo.

Given my concept of a game, characters need to be able to perform certain tasks. For more-or-less arbitrary reasons, I decided to go with skills as the defining factor of characters. “Skill” suggests a value associated with character that can be fairly rabidly increased in play and it further suggests that all characters won’t have all skills (that is, they are not mandatory). All of that won’t be true of all skills.

Attributes (a fixed set of values that chances only slowly if at all) are one way of setting a default for skills, but they should also have mechanical effects in play to be worth it. One common use is to use attributes as hit points (or other measure of resiliency), but I have another solution for that. So, in essence, I don’t see a compelling need for attributes.

The lack of attributes implies another way of resolving simple rolls, which I don’t have, as of yet. It may end up being unnecessary due to the exact nature of all tasks in the game. Further design will tell. A default for skills must also be defined in some way. My current idea is to have a fixed default. If I end up adding rules for nonhumans, they will have different defaults or some special abilities.

Skill: actual rules

Every (human) player character starts with all skills at the value three. There will be a number of skills the player can select at different values. I’m thinking about three skills at 10, three at 7, and the remaining at three. Or something like that. Different combinations allow for more or less powerful and focused chars, so some options are in order.

Getting hurt

Character has an undefined number of tracks, but at least three: Wound track, strain track and rest track. When the number of wounds (the track) equals some skill like toughness, the character is unable to do anything and can be killed with a single action. Essentially: Hit points, but in the reverse direction. Wounds are earned by being hit with sharp, pointy, hot, or otherwise inconvenient objects.

Straing track is a measure of exhaustion, both physical and mental. It accumulates when being attacked, being hurt, being scared, or failing rolls related to straining oneself. When strain equals the sum of two skills, something like toughess and will, something bad happens. I’m thinking a number of possible effects the player can choose between.

Rest track starts at zero and goes up by one when the character rests. The two other tracks can’t be reduced below rest track’s current value. The track is reset when the characters relax and use their loot between adventures. The function of the track is to make resting always a choice: If you do it too often, it simply is not useful any more and you have to get back. It is a soft time limit, in essence. The diegetic explanation is that no matter how skilled a healer you are, the dungeon environment is far from ideal: There are limited supplies, the place is dirty and cold, and it is very tiring to be constantly on guard. Short breaks help for a while, but total recovery demands a good rest at far better conditions.

You know all those blogs where random indie designers post about their own projects? I find them utterly boring. Even if the projects are interesting. I won’t be doing that, hopefully, by starting a small design project here. If I ever get it done, it will be available for free under creative commons. I do it mostly as an exercise and because the damn thing has implanted itself in my head.

Design goals

The core idea: Dungeoncrawling and generic adventuring. Genre: Somewhere between D&D and sword and sorcery. Core story: One or multiple characters select a goal and succeed at it, give up, or perish trying to achieve it. This works best with a self-balancing game.

The game will be full of exact rules. Every skill shall have a clear and explicit use. In addition to that, and to avoid the problems inherent in exact rules, adventure/dungeon designers are encouraged to expand the use of skills for specific situations. The game will be very much a game; players take on goals (GM can design quests or players can decide to do something else within the offered setting) and receive rewards for completing them. If they try too hard, their character may get killed or permanently maimed, or get other trouble. The game will work with only one player and one GM. If I manage it, the might work with only a single player, but it will have a different nature when played that way.

Structure of the game

Characters start at a safe place (a point of light, if you will). They gather information and set an objective for themselves. They equip themselves for the quest. They travel to adventure location (by default, a dungeon). Quick or stealthy travel means no or few random encounters, which potentially deplete the resources of the characters. Once they arrive at the adventure location, the characters must navigate it to their final destination. This is essentially navigating a flowchart. Moving too slowly or carelessly will cause random encounters. Rushing in too quickly will cause missing useful shortcuts and other secrets. Once the objective is reached (or characters too exhausted to effectively go on), a way back to safety must be discovered and the journey survived. Once back, characters will face the consequences of the quest they took and those they didn’t (though some will only manifest given a longer period of time and some won’t be urgent at all). They will have time to recuperate from their wounds and weariness, will usually spend all their hard-won loot on booze and whores and other entertainment, take on new quests, and the process begins anew.

On actual crunch

Core mechanic is stolen from Ville Vuorela’s Praedor (a Finnish rpg) and a forum  thread by Jim Bob (Kyle). That is: Roll nd6, try to get below relevant skill. Sometimes the number of dice/difficulty is fixed, but usually the player gets to decide it, with greater number of dice giving greater benefits. Also, most rolls are player-initiated. Also, players roll all the dice (as a default assumption). Opponents have fixed results.

Why not just play D&D or Rune

D&D has too much cruft and extra bits. Rune is too competitive, has at least one significant balance problem and has far too much point-counting to be enjoyable to me. Besides, I’m doing this as a design exercise and as an excuse for playtesting and fun dungeonbashing every now and then.

Why not make it electronic

I don’t have the skills for that, nor do I find it equally interesting. One or both of these may follow from the other.