Tabletop RPG Design

For art and other creative projects that aren't Let's Plays.
Post Reply
Hello everyone, I have a Tabletop RPG project I've been beating around in my head for a while (well i have several but this is one my mind is focusing on now). I assume a lot of you guys to do. So this might be a good place to share them, ask questions about design, get feedback etc. (If the mods feel this isn't worth it's own thread feel free to delete it).

The details of my current thing (Something I was gonna post in the GameDev thread before I decided that the concept might be better in it's own thread.) are in the collapse below.

Details of My Game
The setting (which I've been working on for years but was more for a novel or a webcomic, before I realized it worked as a role-playing game)
Fundamental premise is that everyone (I do mean everyone not just player characters) has a supernatural power called a "Blessing" and a practically and/or symbolically related supernatural weakness called a "Curse".
Setting is pseudo-sci-fi in that certain technology is better in this setting than the real world (armor kind of looks halo armor but doesn't have the special shield shit, guns are slightly better, cybernetics exists but are limited)
They are monsters in this world, and basically anything outside of cities and surrounding farmlands (all artificial dome protected), is dangerous however both criminals attempting to escape the law, and scientist doing research (usually with guards) will go outside of the dome walls.
They are two countries you deal with a very controlling "orderly" society where peoples needs are taken care of,but people (aside from those with truly minor blessings) are assigned jobs, basic stuff like having kids requires government, and constant surveillance exists or in the "free" society were people have are allowed to choose careers, kids etc, however the government provides almost no services and cooperation rule the land.
TL;DR the two countries are Totalitarian Communist Government vs. Pseudo-Anarcho Capitalist (Though I will never use those terms in the books because I want to avoid real world political terms)
Your party is a military squad in the orderly society who deals with Monster attacks on civilians (certain people such as scientist need to leave the dome for purposes), hunting down criminals, and dealing with rebellions (the last one is suppose to be sometimes messed up)
I'll leaving out of a lot of extra detail I already have written down so if any detail has you curious let me know and 90% chance I've already thought of it.

Character Creation
First thing you do is assign your attributes, Attributes are separate in physical and mental, Attributes range from 0 to 5 for humans (with 1 being the average), they are all start at 1 for Physical and 0 for mental. Your physical stats will be higher, to represent most of your training being physical
Physical Attributes are: Strength, Fortitude, Dexterity, Reflexes
Mental Attributes are: Intellect, Judgement, Willpower, Social
The next thing you do is your blessing. You have an amount of points to modify your blessing. Choose from a list of "Base Powers" with a point, then you get to modify the base power by like applying enhancements or limitations (just flat point mods). Note that you aren't quite just restricted to one Blessing in the truest sense, secondary aspects of Blessings are a thing (Shooting might come with fire resistance for obvious reasons etc.). All Blessings in this book will be limited to those the society would actually make a combat person (IE not pure utility blessings, incredibly minor ones, or blessings that could be more useful somewhere else (Ie teleportation of others)). Any points left over from your blessing are redirected into improving Attributes, Skills, a small collection of Merits, or Combat Skills.
After that you choose your curse, unlike blessings curses are free formed, just describe and discuss with your GM what you want your curse to be, and you two discuss specifics, duration, exact penalties to attributes and skills in certain situations etc. You get XP when the Curse matters (If you get a penalty and fail by that penalty etc.)
After that you assign your combat skills. They are only two: Melee and Ranged. Their is basically a sliding scale of how much you are proficient in each: 3 in both, 4 in Primary and 1 Secondary, or 5 in Primary and -1 Secondary. The last category requires GMs permission and GM is only suppose to grant if your curse makes you actively less viable in the secondary then an average person.
After that you pick your Skill Package. They are 7 options (and every player is required to pick a different one making this a group discussion is encouraged.): Medic, Navigation, Communication, Technical, Information, Tactics and Stealth.
After that you pick you pick 1 "Hobby Skill" which doesn't have do anything on your adventure (Cooking, Sewing, Painting etc.), just for fun defining your character.
After that all players Define 2 NPCs that they personally know are close to, then each player will choose 1 other persons NPC and say how they also know them.
After that the players as a group will define the city they live (while the boarder detials of society are pretty heavily defined individual cities are not specified at all for this exact purpose) along with a boss figure who gives you orders.

Other Mechanics
Skill rolls are d20 + Skill bonus.
Attack rolls to hit are d20 + Combat Skill + Dexterity versus the targets d20 + Reflex. Target wins ties.
Grid Based Movement.
Game cycle continues goes from: Mission -> Downtime -> Mission

Pie in the Sky Stuff
Yes i know it's dumb to already have Expansions in mind when you haven't finished writing the first one but I can't
I have several like extra books after the first, all of them deal with alternate campaign types rather then just expanding on the original.
-A Book where you play as a small mercenary company in the free society. (Will include rule for money and resource management, and includes Blessings that Orderly wouldn't make combat people but are still at least semi-viable for combat).
-A Book covering espionage and intrigue stuff for both the first societies. (Will include rules for spy stuff along with Blessings that specifically are beneficial for intrigue.)
-A Book where you play as a people in small tribe in a different part of the world isolated from the part you play in the main book, who need to find a way to use their blessing and curse to creatively survive in a world without technology and where they are monsters. Virtually every blessing that is not in the intro book will be included along with survival rules
-A book where you play as regular people in a modern day earth setting who mysteriously just got a blessing and curse (Like the small tribe book every blessing that is not in the intro book is included, along with rules about dealing with government agencies.)


Post Reply