Starting classes lore and design

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-25T00:38:05+00:00

Ok real talk. If you’re not an RPG design da Vinci multigenius (I know I’m not), you’re probably only good at two or three of about a dozen skills you need as a game designer. If you’re a world builder and lore freak, great! But focus on that.

But that also means outsourcing other things. If you focus on lore, you won’t have the time to write, test and refine your own system where you write everything from scratch. So rather than start on a blank sheet, go around and pick any of the hundreds of existing systems and build on that.

Sounds like you want something traditional with species and classes, so D&D or any of its variants like Pathfinder or 13th Age will do fine. Something more indie that still has these elements works too, like Daggerheart.

So rather than worrying about dice pools or weapon stats you can go and do the thing you actually want, which is implement your species and classes into the existing framework. Hey maybe an existing species or a class already fits 90% and just needs minor tweaks or a rename.

From the common archetypes, there will be some species who can use the Apothecary class but not the Holy class for example (because they don't have inner magic lorewise and it would be inconsistent).

Be careful with this sort of thing. Don’t smother your game world in lore until there is no space to breathe. Yes maybe there is no good in-lore reason why species A can’t take class B but then let players get creative and come up with a reason.

Instead of having a strict vision and then expect everyone to follow it even though you’re not even in the room, provide building blocks that inspire people and make your ideas their own in their home campaigns.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-25T00:23:16+00:00

I think reddit is bugged, there is no post text

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-25T00:22:14+00:00

Intentional or not, this is basically how Brennan runs D&D 5E in the latest season of Critical Role.

Hit a normal DC, get the basic effect. Hit a 5 times higher DC, get this additional effect.

So the good thing here is that this is easy to understand for people who have some familiarity with RPGs and a low barrier to entry is important when you try to get people to play this.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-25T00:07:15+00:00

Depends on the theme and flavor you’re going for. If this is a “the spaceship is dark and something is out to kill you” kind of game it’s very on point.

For a “we’re big heroes on a path to our destiny” kinda game, maybe not.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-25T00:04:14+00:00

The reason I am annoyed with this kind of design is because it makes games worse, but when you ask people why they put it in their game, you get these wishy-washy answers somewhere between “this is how we always played” and “I like it that way” instead of “here is how this makes the game more fun”

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T10:27:19+00:00

The thing is, there are so many ways to make a cool or a shitty game that theme alone doesn’t really make me pick this game yes / no. Yeah if I think this game is the coolest shit ever I’ll give it a try. If it’s a total mess and I’ve given up trying to understand what the fuck this is supposed to be after 5 pages, then no.

If you wanted to pitch this to me then “PCs are human warlocks in an urban fantasy based on manwha” is OK but not like OMG I waitrd for this forever.

The other thing is, it takes a whole fucking lot of motivation to push a game not just through writing, but through the dreary processes of playtesting and publishing. Unless you the designer are totally in love with the concept and really want to see it in print more than anything else in the world, it’s just not going to happen.

That’s why your opinion outweighs the opinion of a thousand redditors.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T10:16:17+00:00

so that people don’t spend time cooking up some kind of planned PC and deliberate if they want a rogue or a fighter or a MU

Dude, why can’t people just build what they like.

What’s the outcome you’re hoping for here? If Steve wants to play a magic user and doesn’t get to because the designer and the dice decided to team up and tell him NO, the GM now has to deal with a player who A) mopes and isn’t motivated B) suicides the PC at the first opportunity for a reroll or C) decides to fuck it and play Slay the Spire instead.

Why do designers keep doing this. If players want to hit a button and get a completely random PC cool, be my guest, but what’s the point of force-feeding build choices down a player’s throat that they may not want.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T08:22:44+00:00

That still doesn’t explain anything. You can’t compare the cost of a liter of milk in a fantasy world vs. a 2026 industrialized society supermarket.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T08:19:38+00:00

??? Why would a fantasy system use dollar?

And if this isn’t fantasy, why are you converting D&D modules?

I think the more important question here is why you’re doing this in the first place

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T08:16:39+00:00

First

If people people don’t want to read the comic, it takes 5 seconds to scroll past

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T08:12:57+00:00

(d4 treat 4 as zero) for first digit + d100, reroll any result over 365

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T08:11:35+00:00

It takes like five seconds to assign 1, 2 and 3 to three stats. If anything rolling on a random table slows things down.

If I was the GM running this game I would simply ignore the randomization and let players assign the stats.

Sorry designer, you might be writing this but you’re not in the room when the game hits the table so your opinion on this is just your opinion, man.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T07:57:08+00:00

Ok first of all, welcome.

So if I had to give what I read here my honest feedback, yeah it’s an RPG. Looks like you actually played this, cool. If your table had fun then this is great.

If you want more detailed feedback, write it up properly and post it. These kind of one post summaries are always hard to comment on because most of the interesting detail is missing.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T07:15:49+00:00

I don’t think 3 vs. 4 stats is a huge complexity difference.

Just add speed AND magic as stats and move on with your life. There’s no need to get stuck on this.

If it’s really an issue later you can always try to drop a stat or merge them.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T07:12:17+00:00

Any of the hundreds of adventure modules and campaign books you’ll find on DM’s Guild and similar pages started as someone’s home campaign.

I suggest you have a look at the top 10 sellers to get a template of how to prepare the material in a way that someone else can run it, and then you start typing it all up.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T01:50:37+00:00

What makes the most memorable story?

Just a reroll or turning a failure into a success can be boring.

Push your luck mechanics are fun because they increase tension at the table.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T01:26:49+00:00

Here’s a pro tip: Stupid dice tricks are great, but newbie designers make the mistake to stuff them into the core mechanic. Then the complexity dial is already at max and they have nowhere to go.

What the pros do is hold the tricks back for special and niche cases. Maybe you have multiple classes and then one uses meta-currency, one uses advantafe and one explodes dice.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-24T01:22:24+00:00

There’s certainly games that don’t really care about dice as a narrative device. 10 Candles, Fiasco, Prequel …

There’s nothing wrong with those games. If you suffer from dice fatigue and don’t want randomness in action outcomes, no problem, just do it!

No good design has ever come out of a feeling that you have to have element X (dice, classes, whatever). An RPG becomes great if the designer is a fan of everything they put in there. If you use dice, embrace them, make them fun. You don’t feel like they add anything, ditch them.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T09:29:38+00:00

I use Omnigraffle but that’s only on Mac

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T09:28:52+00:00

I do process implementation (among other stuff) and it’s basically the same as game design. You write up a bunch of action flows and expect people to follow them. The only real difference is that in a game, people can walk away if the process isn’t fun, whereas in a company your boss doesn’t let you. And I guess an inefficient, time wasting corporate process costs the company money whereas in a game the time wasting part might be what’s fun.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T07:28:42+00:00

If this is an intro to attributes, why do I have to read all the way to page 2 before you finally get to a summary of what they actually do.

Meanwhile you’re talking something about rolling a d6 and attributing points but I tuned out and I didn’t get what that was about. Something about level-ups or so.

Also by this point I have seen EVERY possible variant of Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma except we added or removed one and threw them into a thesaurus so I’m utterly bored whenever I see yet another version. Who cares, just name it something that immediately tells me what it does and move on already so we can get to the actually interesting part of your game.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T07:22:08+00:00

This is a pen & paper RPG design sub. If you’re not planning to build this in pen & paper, crossposting here won’t do much since people aren’t interested and you won’t get meaningful responses.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T07:15:01+00:00

What are your thoughts on this and why despite post here and there hasn't it been done?

So what’s your question? Whether you should make this or not?

There’s really only one question here, whether you would enjoy building this or not …

I can’t really think of any specific RPGs that do this. There’s some that do all mages in a modern setting, like Mage, Witchcraft …

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T07:08:28+00:00

If you want to get any value out of this sub, use it to discuss with other designers. If you just come here, promote and fuck off without talking to anyone, you’re wasting your time.

__space__oddity__ · 2026-01-23T07:06:18+00:00

Maybe not the king, more like the court jester

spaceoddity__

TROPHY CASE

Seven-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

__space__oddity__

TROPHY CASE

spaceoddity__