Web MMO - Designing an RPG
So my setting is decided, and the game is going to be a classical RPG style game.
So the design of the game is based around the user experience of starting a new character, exploring a new area and fighting creatures. Other ancillary activities will include inventory management, item trading and inter character fighting.
So we are going to need some way of representing how good our characters are at various activities. Now dipping into real RPG design there are various thoughts on ways of doing this.
Advancement
Most peoples role playing heritage can be traced directly back to Dungeons and Dragons, which provides a levelled class based system. For example a level 5 mage is more powerful than a level 3 mage, and only cleric classes can cast priestly magic, mages can’t use armour and so forth.
In many games, and gaming systems this is the default way of thinking about character definition and character advancement. In these games, your characters power and skills are directly tied to their “level”, and this can cause problems, with level 10 characters being able to withstand many more solid hits than a low level character.
Other RPG systems completely abandon a class system. Warhammer RPG is one, you pick a profession, and at various points you can advance in your profession, gaining a small bonus to your statistic block, and opening up new careers to you. An older, more powerful adventurer has more resources, may have better skills, but they’re raw health is exactly the same.
Personally because of the realism I prefer the idea of skills improving, but not your raw health or main attributes, so I think we’ll go with that kind of advancement system. Remember that in most games, you are looking for the system that enables the most fun.
Stat Blocks
I tried to look around the internet for a comparison of various role playing statistic / skill systems but couldn’t find anything appropriate, so I’ll have to sum up from my knowledge of a couple of systems.
The DnD way of describing a characters attributes is to have Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. This system or something like has been used over an over, and many people are familiar with it. It provides two sets of statistics, Physical stats, Str, Dex and Con, and the Intellectual stats, Int, Wis and Cha. You may have played computer games with those statistics blocks, or you may have played with similar systems (Endurance replacing Con for example).
The White Wolf games, Vampire: The Gathering has a system that contains nine attributes (or Traits), rated between 1 and 5, and separated into 3 groups. Physical stats, (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina), Mental stats (Perception, Intelligence, Wits) and Social stats (Appearance, Manipulation, Charisma). Character generation allows you to assign 7, 5 and 3 points to each stat group, and assign them between the stats within the group freely.
The Warhammer RPG had a stats block, that covered a number of statistics, some of which could be described as skills in other systems. Each player had WS (Weapon Skill), BS (Bow Skill), S (Strength), T (Toughness), Ag (Dexterity), Int(Initative), WP (Will Power), Fel (Fellowship), A (Attacks), W (Wounds), SB, TB, M (Move), Mag, IP, FP. (I Cant find a reference and my rulebook is packed up in a box, so I can’t remember what they all mean).
So there is a number of ways of representing the core statistics. In general Tabletop RPG’s have stuck with just a few statistics, as that saves on complex calculations at the table. Computers have ported Tabletop rules, but haven’t generally added the complexity that computers could do. There could be two reasons for this,
- Players want to be able to see their statistics, and lots of pages of stats makes them unsure how to min/max decisions about armour, weapons or skill increases.
- Designers can’t effectively balance a system that contains lots of attributes, the formulas gets too complicated to balance easily.
Skill Systems
There are various ways of representing the skills and knowledge of the characters. The Warhammer way says that all actual tasks are run from those 16 attributes. Nothing else is needed.
Original DnD didn’t have skills, 2nd edition added Proficiencies, and 3rd edition added feats and skills. Each consumes a skill slot and is just usable, and associated with a statistic.
Vampire: The Masquerade has a defined set of around 35 skills, each valued at between 0 and 5, including skills like Handguns, Drive, Occult, Dodge, First Aid etc.
Diablo and some other Computer RPG’s have a skill tree, with learning the first skill enabling the next couple.
I hope this has covered some of the many ways in which it could be possible to describe a character. Really when you get down to it, describing what the character can do is pretty fundemental to a computer role playing game. With a human games master, they can make a judgement call, like “Well you have a high dex, and you come from a human settlement that has horses, I’d guess you can ride a horse pretty well, and even manage to jump on or off a moving horse, but nothing fancier”. The computer can’t do that, so a more complicated system will come out.
For our game, given that it is only a prototype and I’d rather be programming and getting something working than trying to come up with the best ever design, so I’m going with the following decision as I think they will be simplest to implement
- Attributes: 3 Physical (Strength, Agility, Endurance), 3 Mental (Perception, Intelligence, Social)
- Advancement is via skills only
- Skills: Combat (Clubs, Blades, Bows, Dodge), Environment (Hunting, Hiding, Tracking).
- Magic: Nothing at this time, maybe later