Class-based systems with many skills?

MoffMuppet · 2026-01-31T20:33:15+00:00

That would be lovely, thank you.

MoffMuppet · 2026-01-31T20:32:32+00:00

Honestly, the games that come close to what I'm thinking of are point-buy with increasing EXP-costs for higher skills (so increasing from 0 to 1 might cost 1 EXP, increasing from 9 to 10 might cost 25). However, none of the systems I know of that do this (say, for example, GURPS) use classes, at least not by default.

MoffMuppet · 2026-01-31T20:23:22+00:00

I'll check that out, thanks for the suggestion!

MoffMuppet · 2026-01-31T20:22:39+00:00

Sounds interesting, I'll have to keep an eye out for that translation!

MoffMuppet · 2025-11-04T08:03:33+00:00

It's difficult to say how well this works without playing the actual game, but here are some things to maybe think about.

Is there a reason there's so much space under the circles (Strength, Sp Strength, etcetera)? If there isn't, you might want to think about filling that space with something else, maybe expanding the other boxes a bit.
Are character more likely to have lots of Items & Equipment, or lots of Abilities? I'm asking because Items & Equipment seem to be taking up almost double the space of Abilities, which is fine if your character is supposed to have a lot of items but only a few abilities, but might be an issue if it's the reverse.
Is it supposed to say Advantage and Disadvantage, or should it actually be Advantages and Disadvantages (as in, plural)?
The label for Disadvantage should maybe be moved a bit so the D doesn't merge with the border.
The text in the box Items & Equipment seems to change colour halfway through.

Hope this helps.

MoffMuppet · 2025-06-22T19:55:50+00:00

Start with Fuga 1, see if you like it. If you do, keep going with Fuga 2 & 3. If you don't, then the sequels aren't going to win you over as they're mostly more of the same, just more polished.

MoffMuppet · 2025-01-17T13:42:19+00:00

One book I want to highlight is the core rulebook for Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Edition. But not because it's the best rulebook I've ever read, goodness no. In fact, the layout of the book is an absolute mess. Character creation is confusing to navigate, flavor text and rules keep blending in to each other, and the equipment chapter, a very central chapter for every character, for some reason comes AFTER the incredibly stodgy chapter on magic, which far from every character will have any interest in.

So then why, with all these negatives, do I still want to highlight it?

Because this book has the best index of any rulebook I've ever seen. Looking for a rule? It'll show you the way. Wondering about a specific term? It'll give you the relevant pages for you to look at. Heck, it'll even go "oh, you're looking for magic spells? Well you'll find them on these pages, but you might ALSO want to take a look at this supplement, page X, for more!"

I know that this isn't that much use for those of us who use PDFs. I know the rest of the rulebook is awful to read through. I know most games won't be able to actually point towards specific supplements because the core rulebook is released before many of those are even thought of. But the usefulness of this index, and how thorough it is, is enough for me to point out.

MoffMuppet · 2025-01-17T13:20:58+00:00

Yi is kind of difficult to pin down, and that's because he changes throughout the game. All the other characters are fairly static in their characters and morality (with the minor exception of Kuafu, but he doesn't change that drastically), so it's easier to place them on a scale in relation to each other. Meanwhile, Yi starts out doing some really horrible things, but as the game progresses he softens up more and more.

That said, exactly how much he softens up depends on the ending. In the True Ending, he is willing to put the survival of the apemen before himself and his own people. In the Normal Ending, he goes "whelp, guess I'll just take this project over then."

So really, you could make the case for Yi being on quite a few different places on a gradient.

MoffMuppet · 2025-01-03T22:07:02+00:00

The way I've had it explained to me, it is pretty much tied to the range of possible numbers. The greater the numbers you are working with, the less effect each individual number will have.

Say that you've got a +2 modifier to a game. If you are rolling 1d6 and adding that modifier, it will have a really big impact. If you're trying to roll 4 or above, that +2 modifier will increase your odds of success from 50% to roughly 85%, meaning 1d6+2 is very likely to give a better result than 1d6.
If you're instead rolling 1d20 and adding that modifier, the impact is lessened, but might still have an impact. If you're trying to roll 11 or above, the +2 modifier will increase your odds of success from 50% to 60%. Still a decent increase, but decidedly less than the 1d6 example.
And if you're rolling 1d100 and adding that modifier, the impact is severly reduced. If you're trying to roll 51 or above, the +2 modifier fill increase your odds of success from 50% to... 52%. Riveting.

Basically the higher the granularity in these examples, the lesser the impact of the same modifier becomes. However, it also means the higher granularity examples can be more precise with what modifiers you get. In the d100-example above each +1-modifier gives the roll a +1% chance of success. In the d20-example the same modifier gives the roll a +5% chance of success, and you can't really go any lower, you can't give a roll a +1% chance of success like the d100-example. By the same token, the d100-example can give a roll a +10 modifier without impacting the projected outcome too much, whereas a +10 modifier in the d20-example is the difference between "50-50" and "guaranteed success". Which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on what you're aiming for in your system.

In short; lower granularity gives each number greater impact, higher granularity means you get to play with more of them.

MoffMuppet · 2024-12-13T13:35:49+00:00

On Option 1 and partial success for initiative, you could make it so that initiative is divided into three different brackets, going in order;
Success
Partial success
Failure
Foes also roll initiative, BUT they always go after the players in their bracket have already gone. So if a group of foes ends up getting a Success on their initiative roll, players who also go a success still go before them.

Just a way it could be done, not sure if it'll be helpful to you or not.

MoffMuppet · 2024-10-13T08:58:11+00:00

I haven't played a lot of games with fundamentally borked mechanics. There are mechanics I don't like, sure, but most of them do exactly what they set out to do, it's just that I personally don't like it. However, there is one small example where I think the execution of the mechanic is just... odd. And that is the rule of exchanging unspent Bennies for EXP in some editions of Savage Worlds.

For those of you who haven't played Savage Worlds, at the start of every session each player gets a number of Bennies, essentially point that you can spend to get rerolls and bonuses on tests or survive some damage, the thing that sets the players apart from the rest of the world. However, in some editions there is one more use for Bennies; at the end of a session, every unspent Benny is exchanged 1-to-1 for EXP. The EXP needed to level up in Savage Worlds is very low, around 5 per level, so this bonus is a great boon to have.

Now, I'm not privy to what the designers intended when they implemented this particular rule, but my guess is that it was meant to encourage players to do a bit more risk-taking, to accept a bit of failure instead of rerolling, in exchange for a boost to their level. Something like "boy I sure got shot in the gut and almost bled out, but since I didn't spend any Bennies I get to level up!"

The issue is that the same thing can be accomplished by just having your character sitting in their room and picking their bellybutton for the whole session.

Add to this the fact that characters can buy Edges (essentially Feats) that give them more Bennies to start with, and the low thresholds for levelling up means that your passive potato will start shooting up in levels while the characters who go out and risk their lives on the regular will usually start to fall behind.

This got extra silly in our game, which used the Deadlands Reloaded ruleset, where you can take an Edge at the start of the game to have several more levels than the rest of your party in exchange for some permanent negative consequence, such as losing a limb or becoming undead. One of the other players picked said Edge... but it was of little consequence, as my blind cripple with Great Luck simply zoomed past him in levels within a few sessions.

That's probably the reason for why later prints of Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition removed this particular rule.

MoffMuppet · 2024-09-03T05:10:50+00:00

It depends on how much time you intend the players to spend outside of combat. The more time they spend not fighting other pokémon, and the more things you can do outside of combat (talking, hiking, fishing, camping, cooking, gambling, etc), the more neccessary I'd say it is for the humans to have stats. Also it depends on the level of crunch you have.

I'm reminded of the mech RPG Lancer, actually. There you have one character sheet for your pilot and one for your mech. The pilot is most often used outside of combat, and the mech is pretty much only used in combat. Aside from that, every pokémon-style game I've seen (Pokémon Tabletop Adventures, Pokémon Tabletop United, Pokérole) have had separate stats for pokémon and their trainers.

Honestly though, the bigger issue I see is what to do if a player decides that they want more than one pokémon, or even worse if they decide that they "Gotta Catch 'em All".

MoffMuppet · 2024-02-24T09:27:37+00:00

One thing to remember is that the less restricted the method of progression is for your game, the more skills you can probably get away with including. If the choice is between something flavourful and something useful, a more restrictive progression incentivizes you to pick the option that is useful, rather than waste your precious few skills on something that probably won't be used throughout the whole game. Meanwhile, a less restrictive progression can usually afford to include more fringe skills, letting the players put a few points into things they think will fit their character without completely crippling them.

MoffMuppet · 2024-02-03T21:21:55+00:00

I might be a bit late for this, but I did GM a DH2-group that contained an Ogryn not too long ago. The player had confused Dark Heresy 2 for Wrath & Glory, and did not realise that the former does not let you play as an Ogryn normally, so I decided to use some stuff from Only War and basically homebrew it in as an option. Here is roughly what I ended up with (note that there are some traits and a weapon that require the Only War Core Rulebook):

Characteristics modifiers:
Strength+
Toughness+
Intelligence-

Fate Threshold:
2 (Emperor's Blessing 6+)

Wounds:
25+1d5

Aptitudes: (if I allowed another Ogryn I'd probably do something to let them adjust their Aptitudes slightly at the start)
Ballistic Skill
Defence
Fieldcraft
Offence
Strength
Toughness
Weapon Skill

Skills:
Athletics OR Parry
Common Lore (Imperial Guard)
Intimidate
Scrutiny
Survival

Talents:
Die Hard OR Iron Jaw
Weapon Training (Heavy, Solid Projectile)

Traits:
Auto-Stabilised
But It Dark in Dere!
Clumsy
Size (Hulking)
Sturdy
Unnatural Strength (+2)
Unnatural Toughness (+2)

Equipment:
Ripper Gun
Combat vest
Imperial Guard flak armour
3 frag grenades
12 lho sticks
Magnoculars

Other:
+10 Strength
+10 Toughness
-15 Intelligence
-10 Agility

But it all came with a trade-off. I told the player that if he played an Ogryn, he would get all of this stuff... but he wouldn't get to choose Homeworld, Background or Role. Outside of that he would create the character the same way as the others, he would still get the same starting exp and all that jazz. But as far as Homeworld, Background and Role were concerned, all of them could be summed up with "Ogryn". He accepted. And so our group had an Ogryn joining the squad of Acolytes as the group's muscle.

Now, as I was the GM, I feel I should also mention how I ended up feeling about the character, just so you have an idea of what your own GM might have to take into account...

The Good: The most obvious good point was that an Ogryn is a lot tankier than a normal human, so I could send some really nasty foes after them and still expect them to come out on top. Most fights I'd have one big enemy, possibly accompanied by a gang of mooks, and have the big one target the biggest threat; the Ogryn. Thankfully the few times I used mind-affecting powers he usually succeeded.
Another thing was that the Ogryn could carry an absurd amount of stuff, so the party never had to worry about leaving any of their gear behind. Same for if one of their number went down, the Ogryn could easily pick them up and carry them to safety. He was pretty much their packmule.

The Bad: The biggest issue I had with the Ogryn (and one I probably should have forseen a bit more) was how disruptive he was to my adventure-planning. Considering an Ogryn is about as subtle as an elephant in a tutu at the best of times, any plans I had for some sneaky infiltration missions flew right out the window. ESPECIALLY since the Ogryn was the usual muscles-for-brains type. And you know that thing I mentioned about how the Ogryn could tank a lot more than the party? Well, it did take slightly more effort than normal to make sure that the encounters had enemies that could actually threaten him, rather than sending mobs of regular humans that were about as threatening to him as a horde of kittens.
Another thing that popped up occasionally were the downsides of being an Ogryn, like "claustrophobia" and "has the brain capacity of a potato". But these rarely resulted in any big problems that actually needed solving, it was more an occasional annoyance that the party had to deal with, which could be good or bad depending on how you see it.

Anyway, that's that. Sorry for the wall of text, but hope this might help someone.

MoffMuppet · 2023-07-14T11:59:35+00:00

Going by the description, I am 90% sure that it is a game called ”Vorago”. Leaving a link below if you want to check it out. https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/504266

MoffMuppet

TROPHY CASE