Monday update!

Alright, so last week I told you all about how much great input I had gotten from camping with the fellas. This week I want to tell you about the part of the rules I'm currently working on and why.

Currently I'm spending my time trying to figure out what kind of system I want, in regards to which dice, how to use them and whether or not they should be added for a total or counted as a number of "successes" or "hits" as WoD or Shadowrun. I'm leaning towards a system based on the d6 and "successes", rather than a calculated total, due to the statistical advantages of this system approach, but I am in no way certain that this is where I'm going to end up.

Considering the system basis, I have spent the past two days trying to figure out which attributes I wish to use for different actions in the game. Quite frankly, as many of you know, I haven't even settled on which attributes I want in the game yet, so this is still a part of the system that is VERY much up in the air and subject to constant change, in sharp contrast to my system of magic, which I think is pretty much done (once again, thanks guys ;) ) and this, in fact is the subject of this update.

Up untill now I have been working with the following list of attributes and derived stats:

Might - Power and Stamina
Finesse - Dexterity and Reflexes
Mind - Reasoning and Memory
Willpower - Determination and Discipline
Charisma - Manipulation and Presence

Now these stats obviously make perfect sense in my mind, but having run them by ALOT of people, I have found that they may not be as obvious to everyone else, which is the reason I have been trying to change them in order to make them more accesible to others. This is not an easy task though, but last night I spoke to a friend on the phone (thanks again, Anders!) and was immensely inspired by listening to him going on about some thoughts he himself had had back in the day when he was trying to build a system of roleplaying. Alot of great points were exchanged and I think I have decided to not keep these stats and instead try to figure out what is needed for people to practice and hone their abilities and try to implement that in the game system.

One of the major points that was mentioned during last night's phone correspondance, was the idea of non-modifyable stats, meaning stats that you would need to really consider during character creation as they would never change and would have a major impact on what type of character you wish to play. This could be any type of stat from an inherent stat determining the character's ability to move in different ways to a general idea of what your character would be good at, having no practice or even prior knowledge of. The idea is, in itself, very abstract but once you start thinking it through, the idea becomes clearer and much more interesting. For example a stat that determines how well your character picks up and uses information in order to learn new skills and abilities would be a major consideration during character creation to nearly all character types - the warrior would need it in order to learn tactics and military history and appliance of strategies in different situation and against different enemies, the scholar would need this stat in order to pick up the numerous areas of knowledge he wishes to focus on and so on.

The idea of a stat like the one mentioned above is staggeringly interesting to me, as it enables a player to create an original character concept that actually makes sense during both early gameplay and lategame, as his ability to progress is not diminished in the same way as usual, when he gains xp or whatever sort of resource a system might use. Usually your ability to keep evolving and growing as a character is dampened the more time is spent playing the same character as your abilities become more expensive to develop - and just to be sure you all know this, I think this is fine and obviously it is done in existing system in order to balance things out and not make characters extremely overpowered in comparison to other players or NPCs, but it does feel like wading through a pool of mud at times, when your warrior just wants to keep hitting stuff and watching it break, but is penalized in every way because he's already unbelievably good at smashing stuff.

After my phone correspondance last night I obviously went straight to the computer and starting typing a few notes on the subject. So far, I've arived at the following:

Motor Skills - Determines your ability to develop skills in this category. Usually physical actions and movement skills.
People Skills - Determines your ability to develop social skills. Usually communicative skills, although some actions involve non-verbal abillities.
Cognitive Skills - Determines your ability to develop skills of a cognitive nature. Usually knowledge and Science-related skills.
Magical Aptitude - Determines your ability to manipulate magical energies. A certain level is necessary in order to learn magica paths.

Again, nothing is complete yet and everything is still very much subject to change, but these general skill categories or whatever they should be called, are extremely interesting to me as a kind of "top layer" of a character that gives a general idea of which direction he should be going, without limiting the character, should he choose to go another way later on. A great mathematical (cognitive) mind, with poor physical (motor skills) ability might choose to start lifting weights and practicing the martial art of Kendo (swordfighting), he may have trouble in the beginning but if he sticks with it and keeps practicing, eventually he'll begin to show signs of expertise in the areas chosen - I like that thought, very much in fact...

I think that should be the end of today's update, you can be sure I will be working on this subject for the entirety of this week at least and don't be surprised if next week's subject is exactly the same, although hopefully with new input and perhaps a bit more insight ;)

as always, tell everyone you know about this blog and follow @ramucorp on Twitter for updates, musings and general nonsense on a daily basis.

Stay Classy!