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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:30 pm 
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This is from a few of years ago, so I haven't updated it to include any new character professions or skills. If I pick up a copy of the players guide I may incorporate any new skills/abilities from there into this system.


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:57 pm 
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What I particularly like about this system is the study time - I'm not a fan of systems where a 16-year-old character can go adventuring for a few months and, even before his 17th birthday, is a level-6-whatever. Master sorcerers are old for a reason and experienced knights will have spent many years honing their battlecrafts in the field; it's not enough to have slaughtered a few goblins with a sorcerer at your side to suddenly be able to use magic (and, yes, I'm picking on D&D here!)

If I were to tweak the system, I'd probably give individual spells a purchase cost, so that a character can decide whether to learn all spells at a rank, or maybe just one or two and focusing on other talents instead. The same for Magic Points - I might not want to buy a bundle of 4MPs for 2 points, but 2MPs for 1 point. You'd probably need some sort of spell tree to make this work well, though. For example, I'd probably make the following Mystic Spells dependent on the lower-level spell: Clairvoyance -- All-Seeing Eye -- Darksight -- See Enchantment. I think Shaun posted a chart of Sorcery spell dependencies somewhere that would be a good starting point for something like that.

Thanks for sharing.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 2:20 pm 
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Thanks for the feedback.

I've kept spells grouped by level for simplicity and book-keeping primarily - you just need to jot down on the character sheet that you have 'Warlock rank 6' and that's it. Buying individual spells would add a bit of a book-keeping overhead.

It would also make the system somewhat open to abuse - characters spending the bare minimum just to pick up the 1 or 2 extremely useful spells that they would use all the time, and forego the rest.

As you mention a spell tree might mitigate this, but it's all adding to the complexity of a system that I designed to sit comfortably alongside vanilla DW without breaking or contradicting anything.


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 3:15 pm 
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wimlach wrote:
It would also make the system somewhat open to abuse - characters spending the bare minimum just to pick up the 1 or 2 extremely useful spells that they would use all the time, and forego the rest.

That's one of my problems with the spells in DW - some spells never get cast, and some spells get cast too much. All spells should add value to the game, although I appreciate that attributing value to some of the niche magics might be difficult (you could have them as prerequisites to more powerful magic, but every spell shoudl stand alone as useful in a reasonably common adventuring challenge). There is plenty of 'waste' in DW, such as dump stats, spells, abilities, etc., which was common of RPGs of DW's era, and it's a shame that when it was modernised in the new edition, this wasn't addressed.

In my playtesting, the sorcerer pretty much just cast Dragonbreath, even if there wasn't combat nearby and another spell was appropriate, the party sorcerer saved his MPs in case there was a combat, so almost never cast anything else. Hence the introduction of Taint - indirect magic is effective, but comes at a cost... Plus the social attitude to such a brazen use of Otherworldly powers is not going to sit comfortably with the natives - best to keep such things to the privacy of the underworld and use more subtle magics in more public places. Add a few additional abilities, like a familiar and intimidation, and now a sorcerer is not so heavily reliant on his magic to be effective in a range of situations.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:07 pm 
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Just giving this old post of a few years ago a bit of a bump (see the first post in this thread), as there are fair few new members on the board and a recent flurry of rules related discussions.

Might prove useful or inspire some more rules suggestions.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 9:23 pm 
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... and a recent flurry of rules related discussions.

I deny everything! :lol:

Interesting approach. Allows a character to be 'customised' which, in turn, allows for players to have different characters even when they're of the same profession.

One suggestion though, I'd be tempted to give Knights the "track" skill at the outset. One of the duties (and favourite pastimes) of a knight is hunting - they are likely to know how to pursue a quarry.
(If you want to keep the Barbarian and Forester as "better" trackers, then you can bump up their starting skill.)

This system clearly favours an extended campaign, stretching over several game years; as I note the time it takes to learn some of those advancements (1+ years).


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:00 pm 
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A player may swap out a skill or two when picking a profession with the permission of the GM - so a knight with track would be allowed, at the cost of some other ability or attribute.

I personally would not include it as a default skill however - there is quite a difference between 'tracking' a deer or boar with a pack of hounds and a skilled woodsman in your hunting party, to following a human quarry through forest or over dale with nothing but your senses and skill.

8-)

Yeah, my own (later) campaigns had some significant downtime between adventures, so spanned many years of the characters lives. Going from rank 1 to rank 8 in the space of a few game months doesn't quite do justice to the epic journey of a hero or legendary character...


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:34 pm 
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A player may swap out a skill or two when picking a profession with the permission of the GM - so a knight with track would be allowed, at the cost of some other ability or attribute.

I personally would not include it as a default skill however - there is quite a difference between 'tracking' a deer or boar with a pack of hounds and a skilled woodsman in your hunting party, to following a human quarry through forest or over dale with nothing but your senses and skill.

That's a fair point. If the player can swap (with GM permission), then that covers it anyway.

Quote:
Yeah, my own (later) campaigns had some significant downtime between adventures, so spanned many years of the characters lives. Going from rank 1 to rank 8 in the space of a few game months doesn't quite do justice to the epic journey of a hero or legendary character...

I agree. My early campaigns were 'picaresque' and the characters went up in ranks quite quickly (over the course of about 4 game years) to Ranks 8 and 9. My later campaigns have included greater 'down time' - allowing for rest, recuperation...

Now down to a few details...

I notice that the HP don't seem to match up with the 'canon' DW professions? (I may have misunderstood the rules, of course.)

In DW the Mystic, Assassin and Warlock have the same HP (1d6+5); but here the Mystic has +2, while the Warlock and Assassin have +3?
Similarly, in DW the Knight has 1d6+7 and the Barbarian 1d6+9; but here the Knight has +4 and the Barbarian +5? (Shouldn't the Barbarian be +6?)
Is there a reason for the change?

I assume the bonus to HP is on top of the base scores?
(So a human Knight would be 1d6+7, a human Mystic 1d6+5?)


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 1:17 am 
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Starkad wrote:
Quote:

Now down to a few details...

I notice that the HP don't seem to match up with the 'canon' DW professions? (I may have misunderstood the rules, of course.)

In DW the Mystic, Assassin and Warlock have the same HP (1d6+5); but here the Mystic has +2, while the Warlock and Assassin have +3?
Similarly, in DW the Knight has 1d6+7 and the Barbarian 1d6+9; but here the Knight has +4 and the Barbarian +5? (Shouldn't the Barbarian be +6?)
Is there a reason for the change?

I assume the bonus to HP is on top of the base scores?
(So a human Knight would be 1d6+7, a human Mystic 1d6+5?)


Yep - so this is added to the HP provided when the player chooses race.

Now you mention it, I notice there are some errors in those templates - time for a v0.7...


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 25, 2018 9:01 am 
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Now you mention it, I notice there are some errors in those templates - time for a v0.7...

Sorry!

Just having another read through...

I notice that in your attributes you have a column for 19-21. I thought that, without magic, the normal maximum was 18?
(Can you point out for me where you'd get an Attribute of 21 from?)

I'm not so keen on LOOKS affecting Perception (I know it's an optional rule). Why would someone ugly/socially awkward be more/less perceptive?
Personally, I would have this Attribute give bonuses to "social" skills...
(I tend to regard LOOKS as being a mix of appearance and charisma. I know that some have already changed this PRESENCE - which is not a bad idea.)

At the moment, I can only see one social skill on your list - Charisma. I take it you envisage this to cover a multitude of things, including Orate, Blather, Singing, Courtesy, Diplomacy, Intrigue, Seduction, &c.? I'm trying to think what other social skills a character might want; but if Charisma is all-encompassing you might not need any.
(You might split the social skills in two; one being for 'formal' skills - Diplomacy, Orate - and the other for 'common' skills - Seduction, Singing,* Intrigue...)

* There might be an argument that there's a huge difference between a song performed by a bard at court, and an entertainer bellowing out sea shanties in a dockside tavern?

OR... Perhaps 'social' skills are best treated as 'secondary skills'? Cobwebbed Dragon has posted a draft skill system
http://www.cobwebbedforest.co.uk/librar ... Skills.pdf
LOOKS could be applied as a modifier where any skill involves social interaction... (So you'd list it as +/- to any social situation. Or something.)


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