Thursday, May 29, 2014

A Few Thoughts on my hypothetical retro-clone Part 1 Char Gen

I am not making a retro-clone at least at this time but just to make up for the last couple of unpleasant posts here a a few bits on what you might see in a 5 Stones retro-clone

6 Classes, 1 for each stat
Fighter (STR)
Wizard (INT)
White Mage ( WIS replacing cleric)
Rogue (DEX, I like Rogue vs thief it covers more types of characters)
Ranger (CON, this is a little weird but it seems to fit, Rangers would be all about heartiness)
Bard (CHA. This is the face-man class, not a spell using jack of trades


Backgrounds.
I like the way Next and Iron Kingdoms do this. Basically is a package that anyone can take. Want a roguish mage? Take Wizard class and add Thief Background. This would also cover subclasses

Origin.
Secondary Skills ala 1e or Occupations ala Dungeon Crawl Classics

Adventuring  Abilities
These would be things D&D calls thief skills. Anyone can do them to a degree, Rogues would just do them better

Races
Nothing special here. Humans get a bump though.

Levels
Stop around 10-14 or so.

Gift.
A random cool ability that helps  make each PC a special snowflake.

3 comments:

  1. Gifts sound intriguing. While they may not be necessary in all games/genres, if played well they could really add a lot to a setting.

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  2. Thanks for the reply. Getting a gift system right is surprisingly hard. I've seen various in Rolemaster and in Arduin but getting one that covers from "Get an extra skill" to "Supernatural origin" with fun and balance can be tricky.

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  3. I don't doubt it. I'd personally maybe try to stay clear of "gain a normal skill for free" stuff, and try to make each gift something extraordinary in some way. Something you can only get as a gift. They might not all be balanced, power-wise, but if it's the only way to get it, it should still feel special.

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