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Stat Chat: Making a Stat System


Toogee
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I’m trying to make a RP stat system. It’s not for a particular RP. In fact, I would like this to serve as an open-source system that any RP creators can use for their RPs. It could be used as is or serve as a base to create their own system. I have never created a stat system before, so I’m looking for advice as to what needs added and if any of this could work. I would like to try testing this out in a mock battle to see if this works (when it’s more developed).

Here's an outline of what I'm thinking of:

Personal Stats:

Spread 25 points across the following categories. No more than 9 points in one category:

Strength (STR): This affects attack, for obvious reasons.

Constitution (CON): For the defenders. Affect defense and HP

Intelligence (INT): For smart people. Affects magic strength and skill

Mind (MND): Magic defense, wise guy.

Speed (SPD): For going fast. Affects attack speed and evasion.

Additionally, players have 500G to spend on equipment.

Weapon:

Armor:

Spell:

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Attack Stats:

Battles will be turn based. Hits will be partially determined by dice rolls.

HP: 3 x CON

MP: 3x MND

Attack (ATK): (STR) + Weapon STR – Enemy DEF

Defense (DEF): (CON) + Armor DEF

Magic Attack (MAG): 0.75*INT + Spell ATK

Magic Defense (MDEF): MND + Armor MDEF

HIT: dice roll(s?)+INT (hits if sum is greater than enemy evasion.)

Evasion (EVD) = Attack Speed (AS) = SPD – Armor DEF

If AS > 2*enemy EVD: double attack

If EVD>2*enemy AS: double counter (if counter is possible)

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A really basic set of weapons/armor:

I threw a bunch of names and numbers together just to get a basic idea of what is needed.

Wood Weapon: STR: 1, Cost: 100G

Steel Weapon: STR: 5, Cost: 1000G

Laser Weapon: STR: 10, Cost: 10000G

Wood Armor: DEF: 1, Cost: 100G

Steel Armor: DEF: 5, Cost: 1000G

Laser Armor (don’t ask): DEF: 10, Cost: 10000G

Water: STR: 1, Cost: 100G

Fire: STR: 5, Cost: 1000G

Lightning: STR: 10, Cost: 10000G

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Questions

Leveling up: How much experience to gain?

Caps?

Too much power to magic users?

Stuff I’m not even thinking about?

What would you add?

Edited by Toogee
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It really depends on what the emphasis is about. If the main part of the game is the system itself, people are going to want to level pretty quickly. If it's more of a story base, you can get away with slower levelling. Magic is good when there's a trade off, one issue in a lot of stat RP's is that magic users tend to target the lower defenses, so inevitably deal more damage. Magic weapons being slightly weaker or magic stats being harder to invest in would probably negate it.

Your idea doesn't sound too bad, I'd look at Furet's Shattered Honour series for inspiration, that was dice rolly and pretty fair.

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Well, the first question you should probably answer is 'what is this for'. A system used for a computer game, for example, can afford to be complex because many of the calculations can be done behind the scenes. For a pen-and-paper you can have lots of detail but you'll probably want the actual action to be quick. For forums you'll likely want to K.I.S.S.

The second one you should answer is 'what do I want to do with this'. In the 3d6 I made it with the intent of trying to simulate the random nature of FE while, at the same time, not overextending anyones resources. Almost everyone has a d6 lying around after all so almost anyone could use the system and get a pseudo FE feel from it. For something more stable and predictable a 'hard' stat system with little to no random chance would be good and would work well for more strategic games. Conversely a system with more randomness would be good for a more light-hearted and faster RP (since people would rather just have fun). So... Who is your audience and what do they want?

Before you make a stat system answer those two things and, if this is gonna be an open-source system, be sure to include at least a base disclaimer as to what it's best for.

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My intent is to provide a stat system for story-based RPs on a forum, this one in particular. This community seems to be focused on stat RPs, so I want to provide creators with a system to get creators off the ground. I like seeing lots of story RPs, but I don't want stats to stop those stories from being told. Plus, I like seeing how the randomness provided by the stat can potentially alter the story. However, I want this system to be fairly lean so as to not overwhelm those new to stats.

Your idea doesn't sound too bad, I'd look at Furet's Shattered Honour series for inspiration, that was dice rolly and pretty fair.

I have looked, though I prefer his Frontier system because it's slightly less bulky (at least it looks that way).

For forums you'll likely want to K.I.S.S.

In the 3d6 I made it with the intent of trying to simulate the random nature of FE while, at the same time, not overextending anyones resources. Almost everyone has a d6 lying around after all so almost anyone could use the system and get a pseudo FE feel from it. Conversely a system with more randomness would be good for a more light-hearted and faster RP (since people would rather just have fun).

Not sure what KISS stands for. Something with spreadsheets? In any case, I would like to be able to stick it in a spreadsheet.

I quoted all the stuff I was thinking about. Randomness is important, so is fun.

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KISS means Keep It Simple Stupid

Snowy is implying that forums are dumb and too many rules makes peoples' brains hurt.

No.

One of the big problems a LOT of people making RP's have, especially stat systems, is that they make it far too big and complicated for their purposes making the game in general unlikable. Imagine in RotE went with the REAL FE system with a series of level-up growths, stat calculations, maps, and so-forth. Even if you ignored the '0 HP = Death' rule it would have made the RP a lot more frustrating and undesirable simply because the stat system used made things needlessly complicated. So... Keep things simple.

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I think you missed a level up system. For example, if a char levels up, how many stats would they gain? I've thought about two possibilities:

1) A FE based system with growths, where the GM would roll a 10 sided dice and determine the stats that will receive an increase. For growths like 60%, any number rolled below 7 will grant a stat increase. For growths like 40%, any number rolled below 5 would grant a stat increase, and so on. Not sure how it'd work in practice.

2) Fixed growths according to classes, plus bonus stats to distribute. For example, a Knight would gain 2 str and 3 def automatically per level up, and the player would gain two or three spare stats to distribute.

About itens, I believe the price should match the stats. That is, if an iron armor grants 3 def for 1500 gold, an steel armor should grant 6 def for 3000 gold. Keep it simple and proportional, imo.

Regarding experience, I think it depends on how many enemies you want to be there. I thought about a fixed 20 exp for generic mooks, 40 exp for mini-bosses and 60 exp for bosses. I think shared exp should be a thing for people who are fighting together, so there won't be conflicts. Not sure if the player who deals the highest damage to a boss should gain the most exp while the others gain only 40, or if the player who deals the final hit should gain the most exp.

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No.

One of the big problems a LOT of people making RP's have, especially stat systems, is that they make it far too big and complicated for their purposes making the game in general unlikable. Imagine in RotE went with the REAL FE system with a series of level-up growths, stat calculations, maps, and so-forth. Even if you ignored the '0 HP = Death' rule it would have made the RP a lot more frustrating and undesirable simply because the stat system used made things needlessly complicated. So... Keep things simple.

@ Real FE system:

Level-up growths: That probably comes down to preference.

Stat calculations: Not sure what you mean by this since we still do plenty of calc'ing.

Maps: We probably would have gone with maps in the first place if there was an easy way to do it. It's simpler for players but harder for GMs. Now short of a system overhaul it's a little too late.

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I would generally be against FE style level ups- while the random element can be fun it can also be frustrating. It's not as big in FE since you can just replace the underperforming unit (use Kent instead if Sain can't get Str or Spd for instance), but in an RP setting a player usually has one or a very limited number of characters and is unlikely to want to kill/send off characters they've invested time writing for.

As for the original post, not sure about your attributes. Looks like physical fighters would have to invest in INT(to hit stuff), but magic users don't seem to need Str for any reason(well if they run out of MP I guess- but do special physical abilities also use MP?). Not sure about Con as both physical defense and HP either. A lot of it depends on what the 'classes' are like and what your goals for the attributes are- do you want every attribute to have a purpose for every character or not?

Does attack speed determine turn order or just number of attacks (or does it affect number of turns)?

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On growths: I kinda want to avoid getting too deep in that. Right now, I'm thinking of adopting the system in ROTE: character levels up and they're given X number of points to distribute for themselves. It's not final; I want to get the rest of this working before figuring out that.

On level up: I'm thinking experience gain will be a group effort. Each kill will award a set number of exp. At the end of the battle, the average exp gain is calculated. Anyone that makes lower than the average is bumped up to the average exp gained. Everyone one else gets what they earned. Only final blows count for any exp.

On attributes: I was trying to consolidate stat categories to simplify the system. That might not have worked :P. The CON and HP connection might result in defensive units having absurd amounts of HP and be pretty much invincible. maybe I should make HP it's own thing. For magic users, I added a .75 multiplier to INT to make sure it isn't too overpowering. STR will still be useful in this case. Haven't thought about special physical abilities; something to consider. I do want each attribute to have its own advantage to avoid overspecialization.

On classes: I was going to leave classes up to whoever wants to use the system.

Attack speed: I knew I was forgetting something. AS determines double attacks, which I have added to the original post.

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Given that you're going for something close to Frontier's from what it looks like, I'd consult that, since it worked pretty well. Definitely have HP be 10 + (3 x stamina), though - you don't want anyone hanging around with three health, really. But the emphasis on keeping it simple is the way to go, so you're on the right track, I feel.

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I think the INT stat is kinda controversial, because a warrior character can have a high INT because of skill and, at the same time, be great with magic.

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One of the big problems a LOT of people making RP's have, especially stat systems, is that they make it far too big and complicated for their purposes making the game in general unlikable. Imagine in RotE went with the REAL FE system with a series of level-up growths, stat calculations, maps, and so-forth. Even if you ignored the '0 HP = Death' rule it would have made the RP a lot more frustrating and undesirable simply because the stat system used made things needlessly complicated. So... Keep things simple.

As someone who's been in several and is actively hosting a game with an FE system, I can say that this isn't the case at all. I don't know about you, but my game's been going on for over two years. With a little sense, there's a plethora of ways to fine tune things if the numbers don't quite go right.

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As someone who's been in several and is actively hosting a game with an FE system, I can say that this isn't the case at all. I don't know about you, but my game's been going on for over two years. With a little sense, there's a plethora of ways to fine tune things if the numbers don't quite go right.

In my experience making things overly complicated only results in pointless slowdowns, staff stat abuse, and redundancies. Better to keep things sleek and simple.

Anyways...

On to the more direct stuff, I'd jump up all your weapons by at least 1 point or something along those lines. If you're gonna do a straight reduction you want to tilt it so that damage is done on average or else it just becomes a tap-battle. IMO a 1.1/1 ratio of weapon ATT to DEF is best; but that's my experiences. As for pricing I'd say put a major cut in them. You want the pricing to go on a curve, not a straight line. Charge too much and it makes upgrading pointless/too infrequent. Your player should always feel like they're getting stronger or can get stronger soon; not just sitting around on their fanny waiting around. FATAL does that and it results in some very stupid systems where actually maxing out a class is completely pointless when compared to getting 2 classes to 19 since the EXP requirement simply doubles. So maybe...

Wood Weapon: STR: 1, Cost: 300 G

Iron Weapon: STR: 3, Cost: 1000 G

Steel Weapon: STR: 5, Cost: 3000 G

Titanium Weapon: STR: 8, Cost: 7000 G

Laser Weapon: STR: 10, Cost: 10000 G

This way the player isn't left high and dry out of the gate and has an immediate upgrade goal. Likewise they have a place where they can get a good weapon and focus on other things while people who want to focus on JUST that weapon can indulge for increased power.

Leveling up: How much experience to gain?: IMO. Assuming this is not following the FE style and going with the standard fantasy setting... Levels 1-10: Prior level X 1.2 then add in .1 for every 5 levels after. (Levels 15-20: 1.3, 20-25: 1.4, 25-30: 1.5, ETC) The first few levels get them up and going, give them a rush, and let them feel like they're progressing. Then slow them down a bit and get them used to other things.

Caps?: Ignore them. Let the players deal with their consequences.

Too much power to magic users?: If Magic users start to become too potent throw in foes with better Resistance and lower DEF. This is something that should be dealt with by the GM, not a system.

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Caps?: Ignore them. Let the players deal with their consequences.

I'm not sure if you're talking about stat caps or level caps, but I don't see why you would just ignore either of them during the design process. Everyone has to deal with the 'consequences' of elements that are overlooked and exploited. I can't think of any reason not to at least try to figure out what the upper limits are.

Too much power to magic users?: If Magic users start to become too potent throw in foes with better Resistance and lower DEF. This is something that should be dealt with by the GM, not a system.

You should probably just balance magic ahead of time. Then the GM can focus less on compensating for some blatant imbalance and more on what's actually going on in the RP (This system is for story based RPs, right?), and magic users won't have to be indirectly nerfed for doing what they're probably supposed to be doing. I think this is definitely something that should be dealt with by a system.

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