AWW, Chargen Rethunked
Jan. 29th, 2012 05:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinSo, one of the conflicts I've had in designing A Wilder World is how much of the character creation system should be big ready-made packages that encompass archetypal concepts (character classes and "roles" like Tank, Striker, etc.) and how much should be little fiddly bits for deep customization. I've known from the beginning that I want a balance between the two, but the question has been where to strike that balance.
Allowing players to choose their own level of complexity--like having a point based system where you have 100 points and big archetypal things that comprise lots of abilities are 25 points and little fiddly things that might make them up can be bought individually for 5 points--seemed like one possible solution, but it's a solution that kind of errs on the side of complex and fiddly.
My goal for this game is "plug-n-play", which to me embodies both the idea that everything is modular but also the idea that you shouldn't need deep system mastery, you should be able to sit down, pick some things out of a list or from a literal pile of cards, and then be ready to go.
Now, one side effect of changing the balance of complexity is it changes the rough layout of the character sheet, because part of the concept here is that your character sheet should tell you everything you need to know to use an ability (as long as you have the basic rules down, naturally). If an ability lets you fly, it doesn't tell you to see the flight rules in the movement chapter, it gives you a concise idea of your capability and limitations right there. So the bigger and more complex abilities are literally bigger.
What I've been envisioning is two shoeets (or one two-page spread), one that has the "big stuff" and also the default stuff that every character has (basic stats, HP, etc.) and one that has the medium and small stuff. Changing how much of each there is means redesigning the layout, so I've been putting off the finalizing of it until such time as I have the final balance.
And it hit me that if I throw out the idea of a finalized layout, I can leave the complexity question in the hands of players without adding a point system or making the game complex. If I'm envisioning a system where players assemble their character sheets from cards or using drag-and-drop boxes in a character creator app (which is a long-term goal here), the sizes of the various cards and the need for them to fit the two-page layout can stand as the limitation.
An archetype "package" that contains three distinct bonuses that relate to the same thing but don't depend on each other in any way could be the same size as three individual bonus Abilities that comprise it. So you could take any, some, or all of the individual components as an individual thing, or you could take the package.
You design your own character sheet by designing your character, and vice-versa. This model is especially convenient as Abilities that add whole things you can do tend to be more valuable than a bonus to stuff that anybody can attempt, and they also require more space to explain how they work.
This is probably one of the things that will have to be seen to make sense, but I'm pretty happy with it as a system. What I really like about this change is that it actually simplifies the process of character creation while making the results potentially more complex. Three or four separate steps get compressed into one. Newbies creating simpler characters can get through the process faster and with fewer choices by starting with big things that jump out at them and then filling in the blanks.
The most individual pieces that can be used is 20, as the smallest Abilities take up 1/12th of a sheet and you have one full sheet and 2/3rds of another one to fill up. A character made in that way would have a lot of individual bonuses (and/or a lot of good but fairly ordinary equipment) but not necessarily any real standout characteristics... just a sort of generally competent adventurer figure, or a dabbler in a lot of areas.
The rules explicitly allow players to leave blank spaces on their sheets to be filled in later, if they don't know what they want (or will need)... though pulling a new ability out in the middle of an adventure is subject to GM approval.
(Abilities that are limited in use are separate from the sheet layout, as they exist in a more literal card form and can generally be used once per scene.)
Allowing players to choose their own level of complexity--like having a point based system where you have 100 points and big archetypal things that comprise lots of abilities are 25 points and little fiddly things that might make them up can be bought individually for 5 points--seemed like one possible solution, but it's a solution that kind of errs on the side of complex and fiddly.
My goal for this game is "plug-n-play", which to me embodies both the idea that everything is modular but also the idea that you shouldn't need deep system mastery, you should be able to sit down, pick some things out of a list or from a literal pile of cards, and then be ready to go.
Now, one side effect of changing the balance of complexity is it changes the rough layout of the character sheet, because part of the concept here is that your character sheet should tell you everything you need to know to use an ability (as long as you have the basic rules down, naturally). If an ability lets you fly, it doesn't tell you to see the flight rules in the movement chapter, it gives you a concise idea of your capability and limitations right there. So the bigger and more complex abilities are literally bigger.
What I've been envisioning is two shoeets (or one two-page spread), one that has the "big stuff" and also the default stuff that every character has (basic stats, HP, etc.) and one that has the medium and small stuff. Changing how much of each there is means redesigning the layout, so I've been putting off the finalizing of it until such time as I have the final balance.
And it hit me that if I throw out the idea of a finalized layout, I can leave the complexity question in the hands of players without adding a point system or making the game complex. If I'm envisioning a system where players assemble their character sheets from cards or using drag-and-drop boxes in a character creator app (which is a long-term goal here), the sizes of the various cards and the need for them to fit the two-page layout can stand as the limitation.
An archetype "package" that contains three distinct bonuses that relate to the same thing but don't depend on each other in any way could be the same size as three individual bonus Abilities that comprise it. So you could take any, some, or all of the individual components as an individual thing, or you could take the package.
You design your own character sheet by designing your character, and vice-versa. This model is especially convenient as Abilities that add whole things you can do tend to be more valuable than a bonus to stuff that anybody can attempt, and they also require more space to explain how they work.
This is probably one of the things that will have to be seen to make sense, but I'm pretty happy with it as a system. What I really like about this change is that it actually simplifies the process of character creation while making the results potentially more complex. Three or four separate steps get compressed into one. Newbies creating simpler characters can get through the process faster and with fewer choices by starting with big things that jump out at them and then filling in the blanks.
The most individual pieces that can be used is 20, as the smallest Abilities take up 1/12th of a sheet and you have one full sheet and 2/3rds of another one to fill up. A character made in that way would have a lot of individual bonuses (and/or a lot of good but fairly ordinary equipment) but not necessarily any real standout characteristics... just a sort of generally competent adventurer figure, or a dabbler in a lot of areas.
The rules explicitly allow players to leave blank spaces on their sheets to be filled in later, if they don't know what they want (or will need)... though pulling a new ability out in the middle of an adventure is subject to GM approval.
(Abilities that are limited in use are separate from the sheet layout, as they exist in a more literal card form and can generally be used once per scene.)