Sorry about the no post yesterday. I was sick and my car’s in the shop. Sad.
But
Over the weekend I went through and prioritized all the things I need to do for Spider, from finishing the writing to having it printed to selling it. The things I think I need to have done [I emphasize ‘done’ because ‘finishing the book’ should be the first thing I work on, but I know it will be a work in progress till the end] by this year are as follows:
1) Register the Domain / setup the website. – Early 2010
I think I need to do this now so that I’ll have these when I need them.
2) Playtest, Playtest, Playtest – Mid 2010
I’ve somewhat already started this, but I really need to get serious. Unfortunately before I can sit down and run a pure Spider game, I need to finish the Magic system. I’ve got a working blueprint for damaging spells, so I just need to transfer that to healing, curses, buffs etc. Then it just needs refined.
3) Form the Business – Late 2010
I’m not sure if I’ll do a DBA, LLC, or go all out and INC. I know I’ll need to do something so I can be ready for 2011.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Friday Post: New Boots
This will be my last post for this week. I'll try to stick to this posting schedule in the future as well (m-f).
On Monday I got some new boots of 90% leather construction. I quickly realized that new leather boots are much harder to break in than new shoes. But I'm looking forward to the challenge and the reward of good boots.
It also led me to think about new years' resolutions. I'm not usually into that sort of thing but I've made two for this year.
1) Write one letter to my congressman.
2) Start introducing myself as a Game Designer.
On Monday I got some new boots of 90% leather construction. I quickly realized that new leather boots are much harder to break in than new shoes. But I'm looking forward to the challenge and the reward of good boots.
It also led me to think about new years' resolutions. I'm not usually into that sort of thing but I've made two for this year.
1) Write one letter to my congressman.
2) Start introducing myself as a Game Designer.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
3d6: Feels Like Chicken
While thinking about going to a d6 based system, my wife brought up something that I think I never would have thought about. She said that using only d6’s “felt” less magical. I had to stop and ask for clarification. She meant that using the polyhedral dice gives the game an innately “mystical” feel. The unfamiliarity of the strangely shaped dice lend themselves to a magical theme. I do intend to include magic in “spider” so I am weighing this heavily.
What ‘feel’ do you lose by using just plain old dice? Is that loss acceptable to highlight other aspects of the setting? The recently released Dragon Age uses an all d6 system. I’ve read some things about and it sounds like people like the game, but I think it’s too early to tell how game play “feels” without the other dice.
What ‘feel’ do you lose by using just plain old dice? Is that loss acceptable to highlight other aspects of the setting? The recently released Dragon Age uses an all d6 system. I’ve read some things about and it sounds like people like the game, but I think it’s too early to tell how game play “feels” without the other dice.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
3d6: HP / Level
“But what about Hit Dice?”
Yes, If you remove all dice but d6’s you can no longer say this class has dX hit points while this class has dY. I have so far come up with three solutions to this. Spider only has three classes so that makes it a little easier.
1: Easy but Unfair.
Take the lesser (casting) class; assign it 1d6-2
Take the middle class; assign it 1d6
Take the greater (fighter) class; assign it 1d6+2
This option is easy to implement but severely inhibits the caster. It gives them a 50% chance of rolling a 1 on their Hit Die. The fighter on the other hand has no chance of getting less than 3.
2: Hard but Fair-er
Take the casting class; assign it 1d3
Take the middle class; assign it 1d6
Take the fighter class; assign it 1.5d6
This option requires a little more thought when rolling but spreads out the points more evenly. Caster has 33% chance for each, Fighters spread is 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9. I honestly like this option but I don’t think people would like to do the math for 1 ½ d6.
3: Mostly Easy and Possibly Fair
Take the casting class; assign it 1d6
Take the middle class; assign it 2d6 & take the best
Take the fighter class; assign it 3d6 & take the best
Alright, my wife came up with this and I find it the most intriguing. It’s relatively easy, requires no math, but the numbers are a little ethereal for me. (I’m no probabilitition or statition or even a spellatition) Another problem that it has is it makes char-gen difficult for characters > 1st LVL
All of these have limitations and draw-backs and the best solution may to not have hit points / level even be a function of the dice, but some static number.
Yes, If you remove all dice but d6’s you can no longer say this class has dX hit points while this class has dY. I have so far come up with three solutions to this. Spider only has three classes so that makes it a little easier.
1: Easy but Unfair.
Take the lesser (casting) class; assign it 1d6-2
Take the middle class; assign it 1d6
Take the greater (fighter) class; assign it 1d6+2
This option is easy to implement but severely inhibits the caster. It gives them a 50% chance of rolling a 1 on their Hit Die. The fighter on the other hand has no chance of getting less than 3.
2: Hard but Fair-er
Take the casting class; assign it 1d3
Take the middle class; assign it 1d6
Take the fighter class; assign it 1.5d6
This option requires a little more thought when rolling but spreads out the points more evenly. Caster has 33% chance for each, Fighters spread is 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9. I honestly like this option but I don’t think people would like to do the math for 1 ½ d6.
3: Mostly Easy and Possibly Fair
Take the casting class; assign it 1d6
Take the middle class; assign it 2d6 & take the best
Take the fighter class; assign it 3d6 & take the best
Alright, my wife came up with this and I find it the most intriguing. It’s relatively easy, requires no math, but the numbers are a little ethereal for me. (I’m no probabilitition or statition or even a spellatition) Another problem that it has is it makes char-gen difficult for characters > 1st LVL
All of these have limitations and draw-backs and the best solution may to not have hit points / level even be a function of the dice, but some static number.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
3d6: On the Offence
Yesterday I talked about how 3d6 causes average rolling. In combat that means fewer Critical Hits, but also fewer critical failures. One way to compensate for fewer critical hits is to increase the odds. Say instead of crit-ing on a natural 18 (.46% chance with 3d6) that you crit on a 16 or higher (something like a 4.6% chance). This makes the odds of criting go up to be about on par with D&D. You could likewise increase the odds for “fumbles” if so desired.
On the other hand instead of making them more frequent, you could make Critical hits mean more. The standard (read D&D) method for rewarding high rolls in combat was to have you confirm your critical hit with another d20 roll, then deal double damage. This was nice but did not necessarily mean that your hit dealt any more than a regular hit depending on how much damage you rolled. With a poor damage roll you could end up feeling like you “wasted” a Crit.
In a vitality point system, where a character has an amount of hit points and an amount of vitality points equal to his CON modifier, a critical hit could bypass the hit points and deal straight vitality damage with a good damage roll you could severely hurt an opponent, and that’s what players want when they crit.
One of the, at first, unseen benefits of moving to a 3d6 system, is the ability to “enrichen” the dice. Let’s say you were to use this 3d6 crazy thing. What if then, all your damage was based around the d6. You could eliminate the need for damage dice because your attack and damage are the SAME roll. This means that when you Crit, you’ll probably really Crit.
Tomorrow I’ll go in to Hit Die
On the other hand instead of making them more frequent, you could make Critical hits mean more. The standard (read D&D) method for rewarding high rolls in combat was to have you confirm your critical hit with another d20 roll, then deal double damage. This was nice but did not necessarily mean that your hit dealt any more than a regular hit depending on how much damage you rolled. With a poor damage roll you could end up feeling like you “wasted” a Crit.
In a vitality point system, where a character has an amount of hit points and an amount of vitality points equal to his CON modifier, a critical hit could bypass the hit points and deal straight vitality damage with a good damage roll you could severely hurt an opponent, and that’s what players want when they crit.
One of the, at first, unseen benefits of moving to a 3d6 system, is the ability to “enrichen” the dice. Let’s say you were to use this 3d6 crazy thing. What if then, all your damage was based around the d6. You could eliminate the need for damage dice because your attack and damage are the SAME roll. This means that when you Crit, you’ll probably really Crit.
Tomorrow I’ll go in to Hit Die
Monday, January 4, 2010
3d6: Average is Good
If everyone is special, then really no one is.
The first thing to take into account in using 3d6 instead of 1d20 is the fact that you end up with a much more average roll. With 1d20 you have a 5% chance of rolling any number. This means that you are just as likely to roll an 18 as an 8. In game, this means that, barring bonuses, you are just as likely to shoot the bad guy in the head, as to shoot his goat.
With a 3d6 however you have a similar range of numbers, 3-18, as opposed to ,1-20, but you are much more likely to get the result of a 10. This is because there is only one combination of dice that gets 18, three 6’s. There are twenty-four combinations that get you 10. In game this means that spectacular success and failures happen fewer and farther between.
This makes the numbers on your character sheet matter more. If you are more likely to land a few points from 10 on a die roll, then you can't roll hoping to get that 17 so you'll succeed. Your bonuses will mean a lot more. And in an RPG your bonuses and your character sheet are you. So this means that your character is more important than the dice you roll. This character is good at basket weaving not just a PC on a lucky streak.
Tomarrow I'll go over what this does to combat.
The first thing to take into account in using 3d6 instead of 1d20 is the fact that you end up with a much more average roll. With 1d20 you have a 5% chance of rolling any number. This means that you are just as likely to roll an 18 as an 8. In game, this means that, barring bonuses, you are just as likely to shoot the bad guy in the head, as to shoot his goat.
With a 3d6 however you have a similar range of numbers, 3-18, as opposed to ,1-20, but you are much more likely to get the result of a 10. This is because there is only one combination of dice that gets 18, three 6’s. There are twenty-four combinations that get you 10. In game this means that spectacular success and failures happen fewer and farther between.
This makes the numbers on your character sheet matter more. If you are more likely to land a few points from 10 on a die roll, then you can't roll hoping to get that 17 so you'll succeed. Your bonuses will mean a lot more. And in an RPG your bonuses and your character sheet are you. So this means that your character is more important than the dice you roll. This character is good at basket weaving not just a PC on a lucky streak.
Tomarrow I'll go over what this does to combat.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Christmas and New Years
Phew. Havent been able to post due to Holidays.
During my work vacation I finally broke down and thought good and hard about changing "spider" from a d20 to a 3d6 system. I like the idea and I think I'll delve more into all the ramifications one at a time, this week.
During my work vacation I finally broke down and thought good and hard about changing "spider" from a d20 to a 3d6 system. I like the idea and I think I'll delve more into all the ramifications one at a time, this week.
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