Initiative Revision: Turns Out There Were Problems, Adventures in Amateur Game Design, Part 14

It turns out there was a significant problem with the initiative system that I had devised. I know, I'm disappointed too. The original system had every player with a speed attribute. Every turn their speed would be added to their initiative and the player (or NPC) with the highest initiative takes their turn and their initiative is set to zero.

When I coded up an implementation to work this system, things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. I'll illustrate the problem with an example. Say you have to players with speeds 5 and 9. You would think the player with 9 speed to go almost twice as often as the player with 5, right? Nope.

Player 1: 5. Player 2: 9. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 5. Player 2: 18. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 5. Player 2: 18. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 5. Player 2: 18. Player 2 goes, and is set to zero.
Player 1: 10. Player 2: 9. Player 1 goes, and is set to zero.

So they actually get the same number of turns. In a multiple player situation, the system better approximates the expected number of turns, but there are still some very serious inconsistencies. So I had to revise the system. It is now an old-type Final Fantasy system. Everyone's speed still adds to their initiative, but now a player gets a turn whenever their initiative reaches 100. After they take their turn, 100 is subtracted from their initiative. Naturally, if nobody had an initiative over 100, their speeds are added again.

I modified my code to use this system and the actual results produced were consistent with my expectations and desires for how it should work.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 13: Josh's Castle

This is a short campaign idea. In The Magician King (spoilers coming) there is a character who ends the book as a King of Fillory. Josh is very into pop culture, D&D and all sorts of other nerdy things. I imagine that as a King of Fillory, he would design a castle filled with all sorts of pop culture reference monsters and scenarios to test its invaders. Making your way through to the end you fight him in a battle where he spouts of trite lines from action and fantasy movies and eventually teleports away, leaving some treasure behind to reward you. Being a benevolent king and videogame lover, those who are defeated are not killed. They would merely be captured or returned to the front of the castle to try again.

This scenario idea would be great because the players would get to laugh about the references, metagame using their pop culture knowledge and have a fun time collectively enjoying the things they all love. All of this could happen in a way that would be consistent with the world's design. It could serve as a one-off sidequest, as a location that is frequently returned to to delve deeper into, or as the launching point into a very deep story where things are not all that they seem to be. It's a fun, fill as you want, idea that I really like.

Imagine fighting off Weeping Angels, Daleks, Cave Trolls, Nazgul, a Balrog, Storm Troopers, Death Eaters, Beholders and anything else you can dream off that you've maybe always wanted to fight. I think it'd be awesome.

It's your fantasy's fantasy.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 12: Mage Abilities

100% not the aesthetic I'm going for, but just so cool. I love the Black Mage image search results.

The mage abilities was probably the easiest to come up with. It turns out that the limitless possibilities of magic make it easier to design. I decided to change the general philosophy of the trees a bit to open up more design options. The pet tree became the summoning tree. Enhancement is going to have a melee mage type spin to it also. I've also had some recent revelations that will allow me to squeeze those cool support spells into the trees without making them feel like they're taking the place of a good combat spell.

Arcane

Main Spec Ability: Explosion - a damaging AOE explosion that occurs at range.

In no particular order:

• Blinding Light
• Dazzling Wall
• Magic Missile
• Illusion
• Slow - slows a target
• Teleport - a personal teleport
• Telekinesis - a sustained telekinesis (not fast)
• Exploding Bead - a time delay damage spell 
• Cut - a magical slice through the air
• Mage Hand - an instant telekinesis (upgradable to be an attack)

Summoning

Main Spec Ability: Summon Companion - a permanent, magically enhanced companion. Can be dismissed and resummoned if killed.

• Summon Demon - temporary demon assistant
• Summon Golem - temporary golem (tanky)
• Summon Minor Architecture
• Floating Disc - a floating disc, usable for transport
• Conjure Food and Water
• Mend Ally - heals a summoned ally
• Dancing Sword - a sword appears to attack on behalf of the caster
• Spike - fires spikes
• Summon Clothes - upgradable to bind enemies
• 10th ability

Enhancement - Many of the abilities start as personal buffs but can be upgraded to be castable on others. Some start as castable on others.

Main Spec Ability: Buff - quite literally. Extra dice added to all actions and a speed increase.

• Change Self - alter your appearance
• 2-Ton Hammer - your weapon strikes as if it weighed more. Upgradable to knockback or deal massive damage to fixed structures.
• Resist - An aura that absorbs damage from certain elements
• Mage Armor - A deflection shield that increases your defensive capabilities
• Quick Feet - you move faster
• Close Wounds - heal
• Alacrity - increased turn speed
• Beam Attacks - Your weapon fires deadly beams at your enemies when you swing it.
• 9th ability
• 10th ability

There's always stuff left to come up with...

Adventures in Game Design, part 11: Rogue Abilities

Internet is back on and I'm ready to blog again. I came up with tons of ideas while I was under the internet blackout, and not all of them pertain to this game. But this does. I came up with an incomplete list of abilities for the rogue class. Abilities are listed in no particular order, may have a limited number of uses, and will likely require a roll to succeed.

Dagger: 

Main Spec Ability: Sneak Attack - When an opponent can't defend themselves properly, the rogue deals extra damage. 

• Running Slice - The rogue can take an attack while moving past an enemy
• Blind - The rogue uses a powder to blind the target temporarily, lowering their vision, attack and defense
• Quick Attack - The rogue takes a single attack very quickly (uses one of the rogues main actions, but grants initiative speed as if the rogue hadn't used the action)
• Disarm - The rogue deftly removes the opponent's weapon.
• Deflect - The rogue (makes a roll to) use his daggers and skill not to parry an attack, but to actually cause that attack to hit a target adjacent to the rogue and within the range of the attacker.

Bow: 

Main Spec Ability: Multishot - The rogue fires multiple arrows at once, each attacking a different target.

• Moving Shot - The rogue takes a less accurate shot during a move
• Ricochet - The rogue causes the arrow to bounce off a wall to hit an otherwise unreachable target or to catch a target off guard.
• Aimed Shot - The rogue takes a full turn to fire a longer flying, more accurate, more damaging shot.
• Arrow Stab - The rogue uses an arrow to stab an opponent (when stuck in melee range). Allows the rogue to attack in melee without using an action to switch weapons. If the enemy dies, the rogue is granted a shot as a free action.
• Undecided.

Trap:

Main Spec Ability: Grenade - The rogue throws a grenade which explodes, dealing AOE damage. May have an explosion delay.

• Flamethrower Trap - A stationary turret that spouts flames at nearby targets.
• Bear Trap - If stepped on the target sustains direct damage, bleed damage, and a movement penalty until the trap is removed.
• Grappling Hook - I'm still thinking about the combat uses of it. Tie up opponents? Disarm weapons at range?
• Smoke Bomb - obscure vision while in the cloud and for a certain number of turns after. Provides a block of line of sight for a safe getaway.
• Trip Wire - pretty obvious

A suspension of disbelief or "it's magic" may be required with regard to how the rogue stores all these tools. I worry about the trap rogue. I want to make sure they feel viable. I think it may really come alive with whatever magical abilities it gets to choose.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 10: Initiative and Action Systems

A shirt from Penny Arcade

There is this mantra that seems to exist in the RPG community. It is "Move Minor Standard" meaning that on your turn you get a move action, a minor action and a standard action. I've always had a problem with that system, particularly that your move and standard actions can't be mixed. In D&D, you can use your standard action as a move action but you can't substitute a move action for a standard action.

My plan:
My plan for my game (which needs a proper name) is to have two standard actions and a minor action on a turn. A standard action can be either a move or another action. This means that you can take two attacks on a turn, an attack and a move, or two moves. Because of this choice, I don't plan on having a D&D style attack system where you get multiple attacks on a turn as you level up. An attack is 1 attack if you have one weapon, and 2 attacks if you dual wield (but weaker of course).

A problem with this system is that moving feels like a penalty, because in moving you give up an action. And movement doesn't kill monsters. So how do you ameliorate this? I approached this from a class specific viewpoint.

Fixing the problems with this system:
For the warrior, they get the charge ability. If they move at least 10 feet (2 squares) and it is in a straight line, then if their next action is an attack, it is more likely to succeed and will do more damage when it does succeed. For the rogue, there are two different situations. For a dagger rogue (which is a dual wield type), once during any move, if they more past an opponent, they get a single free attack (only one weapon) on that opponent. For a bow-wielding rogue, they can take a running shot, which is a less accurate attack that can be done while moving. I haven't decided what my opinion is on attacks of opportunity yet, I may not have them. For the casters, some of their spell will be cantrips, more simple/less effective/more minor spells that can be cast while they are moving. This opens up the possibility for some of the spell upgrades that can be invested in to change a spell to a cantrip.

As a side note, for casters, some spell will take the full turn, most will take just one action, and some will be cantrips. Cantrips can also be done as a standard action, they don't have to be done while moving.

Another shirt form Penny Arcade

Initiative:
Tying into this is the initiative system. In all the systems that I've seen, initiative breaks down into turn order. What I want is for everybody to have a speed which determines how often they get to have a turn. Essentially, each person has a number for their combat speed.

At the beginning of combat, everybody rolls for an initial initiative. The person with the highest initiative goes first. After each person takes their turn, their initiative is set to zero and everybody adds their speed to their initiative and the highest person is chosen to go again. In the event of a tie for who is highest, both people go in a random order and then only after both have gone are their initiatives set to zero and the speed are added.

How do these tie in together?
In my system, there may be times where you choose not to take one of your actions or you may not use either of your actions. Choosing to not take an action should make your next turn come faster. If you only use one of your actions, your speed in increased by 50% until your next turn, meaning that is should come in about 66% as much time as normal. If you choose to forego both of your actions, your speed in increased by 100% so your next turn only takes 50% as long to happen.

All of this comes from my own dissatisfaction with how standard RPGs function and ways that I think they could improve. One flaw with this initiative system is that it's complicated, there are lots of numbers to keep track of. Perhaps and iPhone/Android app or computer program is in order to help keep track of this. Or DMs can have their players keep track of their own initiative and the DM keeps track of the monsters.

What needs to be decided:

1. How is initiative speed determined? I kinda want rogues to be slightly faster than other players
2. How is initial initiative determined? 

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 9: Warrior Abilities

I had been having a roadblock with designing the abilities for each class because the idea of designing 10 abilities for each spec as well as the 5 options for each spec was daunting. It would have made be design a grand total of 60 distinct abilities for the warrior and for the rogue, which is damn near impossible. I since realized that I should do 5 basic abilities and 5 choices, which works out to something new every other level.

Since making that decisions, it became much easier to do. So what follows is a list of the basic abilities that I have for the warrior (not including the magic abilities that they get to choose). Abilities are usable a certain number of times per combat/day/other time period.

1. Shield - Main spec ability - Counter Attack: After a failed attack, the warrior gets a free attack on the attacker (usable a certain number of times per encounter)
1. Cautious Attack: A more conservative attack that gives the player greater defense for the next round
2. Toughen Up: The warrior gets some temporary HP that will absorb some of the damage taken for X turns.
3. Shield Bash: An attack that knocks back the the attacked a short distance and gives them an initiative delay.
4. Protect: The warrior can sometimes take a hit instead of an adjacent friendly target
5. Undecided
2. 2-Handed - Main spec ability - Overpower: A more powerful, more likely to succeed attack that debilitates the target the next round, subtracting from their die rolls.
1. Leg Sweep: An attack that knocks the target down on the ground, reducing their defenses until they use a move action to stand up.
2. Cleave: Sometimes when the warrior downs an opponent, he gains an extra attack against another opponent.
3. Bleed: An attack that is focused on the major arteries intended to cause the opponent to bleed out more quickly, taking damage over time.
4. Cripple: The warrior attacks a part of the body, intending to disable it. Either an attack or movement penalty is applied to the opponent.
5. Undecided
3. Dual Wield - Main spec ability - Flurry: The warrior sometimes gets to take extra attacks this turn.
1. Bloodlust: after taking or dealing damage, the warrior can take a defense penalty for an attack bonus for a certain amount of time.
2. Frightening Presence: The warrior scares all the opponents nearby, giving them die roll penalties.
3. Crashing Leap: The warrior leaps and upon landing deals damage to all nearby enemies.
4. Whirlwind:  The warrior spins and attacks all opponents adjacent to the warrior.
5. Undecided

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 8: The Magician's Mountain, Hohenheim

The Sorcerer's Summit, The Arcane Ascension, The Magician's Mountain, Prestidigitator's Pinnacle, The Flying Peak. These are all names by which the floating top of what used to be the largest mountain in Loria goes. Bergheim used to tower above all the Yrdgar Range.

Shamanistic magic has always been with the Lorians. No tribe has ever been complete without at least one shaman, not only to protect them, but to guide them. Shamanistic magic has always been about the world. It's been about rock and wind, fire and water, or plants and nature. Hundreds of years ago some of the shaman, in their magical experimentation, discovered magic that belonged to none of these categories and they called it The Arcane.

Study of the Arcane was expressly forbidden by the shaman elders. As with all things forbidden, many of the shaman practiced it in secret. Four times a year, these shaman would meet in secret high up in Bergheim, the highest peak of the Yrdgar Range, to share their discoveries and perfect their craft. As they became more stable and the magic more well defined, they abandoned their tribes so they could devote themselves to the study of the Arcane.

Bergheim is harsh and not easily settled, but not especially steep. Still, it's incredibly difficult to get to without magic to aid you. With their magics they were able to protect themselves from the harsh wind and cold. They carved out terraces in the mountain's face and established agriculture. They built shelters, libraries, and rooms where they could develop and strengthen their skills.

Eventually their Arcane magic became so strong they eschewed their old, shamanistic magic because they felt it was weak. One day, these Arcane magicians awoke to find three dwarves who had found their way to them. Impressed, they offered to teach the dwarves, hoping that their unique point of view and way of thinking would lead to new magical developments. The dwarves declined and announced that they had only come to warn the mages that the mountain was volcanic and that the dwarves sensed that it was becoming restless and would soon erupt.

The magicians didn't want to abandon the home that they had made for themselves. In their hubris they devised a plan that they would all channel their strength into casting a barrier that would prevent the eruption from affecting the peak, effectively walling off the lava and the and holding back the pressure of its accumulation. While this was good for the magicians, it would prove to be terrible for Bergheim.

Normally, a volcano erupts from the top, but with the easiest point of egress blocked off the pressure built more and more. The eruption was going to happen, there was nothing they could do to stop that. The sides of the mountain burst off, shooting lava far out over the land surrounding it. Many people died down below even though they thought they were far enough for safety. What hadn't blown off was so unstable that it collapsed in on itself, falling in the magma pit below. There, floating above and watching it all happen, were the magicians. Their wall held admirably and held them up. Since their home was now detached from the world, they set it in motion to fly over the central area of Loria to show the world that they were better than it, a demonstration of their power. They renamed their flying mountaintop Hohenheim. Bergheim had been reduced to an average height, incredibly wide mountain, with a boiling pit of magma at its center.

Hohenheim is now the central location of Arcane magic in Loria. Aspiring magicians must either be identified and brought to the peak by current members, or find some way to reach the peak without invitation. Usually only a powerful shaman would be able to perform such a feat. Once there, however, they must forget their shamanistic learnings in order to start over as a magician.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 7: Great Fjord

A concept sketch of Great Fjord, subject to change

So my setting is largely concerned with viking-esque people, so I have to have a fjord, right? And if you're going to have a fjord, why not make it awesome? That was exactly my thinking and it led me to Great Fjord.

Extending miles inward from the cliffs along the western end of Loria, Great Fjord may not actually be a fjord. Geological science isn't very strong and people don't actually know how this vast crevasse was formed. Many years ago, a group of Lorians dug their homes into the walls of this canyon as a way to hide themselves. As time went on, more and more people began to settle there and the largest settlement in all of Loria, and its capital, was formed.

The significant majority of Great Fjord's residents have dug their homes into the walls, carving out the rocks as blocks they can sell to the city to build the walls that protect the city from above. The primary industries are shipbuilding, fishing, and agriculture. Farmland isn't cultivated on the plains above the city and the shipbuilders set up shop at the bottom level.

Generally, wealthier citizens live towards the entrance of the fjord as well as in more elevated positions with the poorest citizens living far back in the fjord near the waterline. The absolute wealthiest of people have claimed space on the front wall facing the sea. Sometimes when a family becomes wealthier, they will simply buy their neighbor's home and dig connections between the two.

Now, cities aren't normally laid out vertically, because gravity is one hell of a thing to deal with. This creates tremendous horizontal and vertical distance than sometimes have to be traveled in order to get to your destination. Adopted from their ship building industry, the city has built in zip lines and sophisticated compound pulley elevators to assist people in reaching their destination. In general, every citizen has a set of handles that they carry to use with the zip lines and elevators. Lateral movement is also done with walkways attached to the faces of the cliffs as well as bridges that the chasm periodically.

The structure of the city, its bridges and walkways is supported by shaman who walk up and down the various structures casting spells to bolster the strength of the rock. The smoke from the cooking fires in the homes is channeled man different complex chimneys which gather together and pour out from the earth above. These chimneys are made especially tight and their openings are high enough off the ground that the smoke stays away from the plants and people above.

The entrance to the fjord has no gate, but the front wall has plenty of cannon positions with which to repel any sea based attack. A great wall runs down the length of the fjord up above to  protect the city and its closest farmland. This wall is made from the rock that was carved out when people made their homes. As of yet, homes do not run the full length of the fjord, so neither does the wall.

Next time, I'll talk about Soaring Peak, the magical academy that lies to the east.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 6: Setting

A quick sketch I did of Great Fjord on whiteboard. More will be told of this place later.

I know I haven't blogged or said anything about this game in a while. That's partly because I hit something of a wall. Up until know, I haven't talked about setting or story. Mostly, that's because I've had no idea of what to do for the story or setting. The only thing that I really knew that I wanted to do was magic+vikings. It wasn't until this past week that I had an idea of what I could do.

Reading The Magician King I was struck by something. It takes place in a magical land called Fillory. To the north of Fillory is Loria, which is often the aggressor against Fillory. Not much is ever said about Loria, it's merely mentioned. There was one tidbit that caught my attention. Loria is very briefly described as 'proto-Viking.' I've decided that I want my game to be set there.

After that, it's become a matter of what Loria would be like. The world of Fillory has magic, magical landscapes, mysterious places, animal people, talking animals, dwarves, and of course humans. Fillory (which is also used to refer to the entire world) doesn't have geographical relationships with temperature, so despite Loria being to the north, it isn't necessarily colder.

Since there isn't much to draw on, this gives me great flexibility in how I pattern and create the world. I want a variety of climates so that I can explore what the proto-viking Lorians would adapt their culture to their setting. Clearly, they would need to have a large amount of seafaring. There are two things that I really want. First, a massively tall fjord, with vertical sides and incredible length. The other is a volcanic mountain whose peak floats in the air above it.

I'll be figuring out and unveiling more about Great Fjord in time.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 5: What I haven't figured out.

There are many things that I still haven't figured out how I want them to work. I certainly haven't figured out what I want the specific abilities to be. There are major systems that I still need to nail down first.

Attacking
I know that I want attacking to be on a d10 system, that much is sure. What I don't know is how many attacks players might get, if they get multiple attacks at all. I don't know how I want to do damage, or even health. If I have health scale with level, then I feel like I should do a multiple attack system like in D&D, but I don't really like the multiple attack system.

Stat/Skill Increases
I want the character's stats and skills to increase as they level, but again, I don't know how I want to do this. There's the White Wolf system where you get points that can be invested in things, where things with a higher value require more points to raise. On the other hand, there's the D&D system where stat and skill increases come automatically as you gain levels.

Health
Should I have health scale with your level or should I have health scale directly with your constitution and nothing else? Which system I use then has drastic ramifications for how healing and damage will work.

Setting
At this stage, I don't really know what I want the setting to be like. The original vikings versus dragons idea could stick around, but it's going to need to be much, much more to compelling. I think I'll start by designing a campaign and then working things around that.

Since I've started my full-time job, I've had drastically less time to think about this game, as you might imagine. I've also had drastically less time to blog. So updates will probably be less frequent.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 4: Customization Systems

In my last post, I mentioned that the specializations give you a fixed list of abilities as well as some customization options. The decision to give the different classes different customization systems just arose naturally out of my desires for how I wanted them to operate.

For the Warrior and Rogue: Learned Magic
In the setting, there is this idea that every person knows some magic, it's just part of society. So to that end, at certain points while leveling (roughly every 4 levels, for a total of 5 choices planned before level 20) the character must pick between a mage-like ability or a priest-like ability. For example, a dagger rogue may have to choose between a short-range teleport (from the mage) or a short-range knockback (inspired by the Earth/Wind power of the priest). Another part of this idea is that you can't have both abilities, you have to choose.

This system is adopted from Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. In the game, as you progress, you have to choose between certain augmentations for your buildings/units. In Starcraft II, there are separate progression trees for Zerg and Protoss inspired upgrades. In my game, each specialization has it's own progression trees. So each warrior will pick abilities out of the progression trees for each spec. The difference is that you'll get a total of 5 choices from your primary spec, 3 from your secondary and 1 from your tertiary spec.

For the Mage and Priest: Spell Augmentations
It wouldn't really make much sense for mages and priests to have the same customization system as the warriors and rogues do. So I wanted something different. One of my problems with other RPGs is that for the casters there is a great breadth of abilities, but they often become outdated as you level. So I want my abilities to scale nicely as you level, which means that I don't need for there to be a wide selection of spells. In order to keep the spells feeling fresh, there will be a point based upgrade buying system for the spell that will allow you to change the way they function.

My go-to example is for Magic Missile. The standard Magic Missile spell fires several unerring projectiles at the target. The first customization option may be to allow Magic Missile to be cast as a free action and therefore in the same turn as another spell. Another option would be to allow the missiles to each have different targets, giving it the option for AOE (area of effect) damage. The last option would be to add some forcefulness to the missiles, giving them each a slight knockback effect.

I would like for the upgrades to be evenly priced, but for them get more expensive depending on how many augmentations you already had for the spell. So maybe the first augmentation would cost 1 point, the second would be 2 points and the last augmentation 3 points. The real trick to this system is figuring out how many points the character will receive. Too many points and they can get everything they really want. Too few points and they feel restricted. There's a delicate balancing point somewhere in there.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 3: Specialty Design

Like this, but also completely not like this.

So how do the specializations in my RPG differ from the specializations that most people are accustomed to from World of Warcraft? Currently in World of Warcraft, your specialization provides you with a special ability as soon as you pick it at level 10 and provides you with many, minor customization choices as you level. What I don't like, and Blizzard also doesn't like, is that many of the choices feel like false choices where many of the things are 'mandatory' in order to play optimally. I also don't like how many choices there are and the fact that in making one choice, you often have to invest multiple points to make that choice. Furthermore, whichever tree you pick to put points in as your 'secondary' tree doesn't really change your playstyle, just your efficacy.

For my design, I wanted your spec choice to occur at level one, so that different players of the same class can feel different from the beginning. This is reinforced by your primary spec giving you a special ability at level one. As you level up, your spec automatically gives you new abilities at certain levels. To allow for customization and choice, there is a customization system for each class. As currently conceived, the warrior and the rogue have similar systems and the priest and mage share similar systems. This will be the topic of the next post in the series.

Furthermore, after picking a primary spec the player also picks one of the two remaining specs to be their secondary spec. Despite the level one ability, the only difference between your primary, secondary, and tertiary specializations is the rate at which you gain new abilities from them. Meaning that some abilities won't be gained by players who don't choose it as their primary spec. This, too, will be the topic of a later post.

Another aspect of WoW specializations is that certain abilities, despite being available to people who picked each spec, aren't used by players of each spec. For example, every WoW rogue learns Rupture, but now all of them will use Rupture. This seems like a counter-intuitive design and so any ability that the player gets, I want them to use. To that end, if an ability is attained by a player of one spec, I want it to be just as effective and useful to a player of another spec.

In short, for the specializations we have:

• chosen at character creation,
• provides an immediate ability that is unique,
• meaningful secondary specialization,
• ability strength equality,
• and an engaging customization system.

Details about the customization systems is what will follow in the next post.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 2: Changes

Since the original inception of the idea, almost everything about the classes has changed. To start, there would still be four classes. Except they would go from being defender, warrior, archer, and geomancer to warrior, rogue, mage, and priest. Furthermore, each class would go from being a set list of abilities to a three-specialization implementation. So what are all of these classes?

The warrior specs would be shield, 2-handed, and dual wield. The shield spec would focus on defense. The 2-handed spec would focus on powerful attacks and debuff type abilities that originate from overpowering the opponent. The dual wield spec would focus mainly on doing damage through fast, multiple attacks.

The rogue specs would be dagger, bow, and tools. Dagger spec would focus on melee attack, evasion, and maneuverability with weakness exploitation. Bow spec would (of course) focus on ranged attacks. The tool spec would focus on traps and other gadgets to use in battle.

The mage is much like your typical wizard with the specs of arcane, pet, and enhancement. The arcane tree is the typical spellcasting tree, focus on damage spells and other things, such as teleportation. The pet tree would have a permanent companion with special abilities for the pet or to temporarily enhance the pet. The enhancement tree is the one that I'm most unsure about and would love to find a better idea for, it would have buff spells. You can see how it's a fairly shallow idea that needs more. Illusion may be added, as well as debuff abilities, I just need to solidify it.

The priest wouldn't be similar to the WoW priest. The priest would be very tied to the games lore. The priests would be those who celebrate and practice balance and be very tied to the original geomancer concept. The specs would be life/death which would focus on healing, nature, and decay magic. Then there'd be the earth/wind specs and the fire/water specs, which would focus on manipulating those particular opposing elements.

Next time I'm going to talk about how the specs would work, since they function very differently from the WoW specs which are probably what most people reading this are thinking about.

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 1: Introduction

This was originally going to be "Adventures in Amateur Game Design: Part 1: Introduction: How I got started: Fun with subtitles" but Sarah told me that was stupid. The idea, however, remains the same. Why did I decide to start making a game and what is it?

The idea began to develop after watching How to Train Your Dragon. I really thought that movie established a credible basis upon which to design a game. It's even something that gets poked fun at in the movie.  So I really liked the vikings versus dragons setting.

As far as classes go, there were four: defender, warrior, archer, and geomancer. The defender was a shield using, defensive class. Warrior and archer are self-explanatory. The geomancer would be the mage-type class with an emphasis on some Avatar-esque elemental magic. All the classes would have some magic that would go with their particular niche. They would have attack magics as well as support oriented magic. The defender had personal and party defense magic. The warrior had attack and party buff magic. The archer had attack and enemy debuff magic. The geomancer was just plain magical.

For the system, it would have been a d10, White Wolf-type, system that would use the other dice for damage. I wanted abilities to be of the D&D 4th edition type where they have a certain number of uses per a period of time. I also wanted an initiative system that would allow for dynamic turn ordering, where a character could be 'faster' and have their turn come around more often. Furthermore, I wanted a character to be able to abstain from action to have their next turn come around faster.

That was pretty much all I had before I ran out of ideas and steam roughly a year ago. The idea has since returned to me in full force and I'll be talking about the things that I've changed since then and the inspirations for where they came from. I'll be talking in depth about how I'm going to capture each of these ideas that I've had. Stay tuned, because I think this will get pretty interesting.