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willows-unnamed-rpg · 3 days ago

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Week 2

Overview and thoughts

I decided I want to try to make one post a week with progress on my project, so I figured I should be more transparent on what these posts should look like and some more insight into what I am working towards.

Each post should be up on Monday to highlight what I been working on for this system/game. I intended to release a playtest of the system that will be open to the public. I currently have only myself on the project so progress will be slow but once I have some sort of Alpha test or something I'm comfortable having people run with I'll post a link to a pdf and host it in a pinned post. I know that this will require a lot and my goal is to have a simple adventure module to test out along with some handfuls of additional monsters to play with if you don't want a module. This is ambitious but I need to shoot for the moon

Beginning on the System - TTRPG stuff to be used for my game

I mentioned briefly in last week's post that I wanted to do a point buy based system and I figured I should go into some depth about what I currently have so far.

I like the idea of loosely placing abilities/features into one of three categories based on traditional MMO style features: Tank, Damage, and Support (I am going to change these names, they are not final). I also want some semblance of balance, so trees or pathways make sense, invest more into something and it gets better. I also want things to overlap so it's more a Venn Diagram and less a defined category. I was also thinking to split based on archetypes but that would be limiting I think. I would want my favorite archetypes to work (spell sword, life as a resource) along with other traditional (fighter, ranger) and non traditional styles (using magical objects rather than magic itself, specific weapon oriented builds).

I also think the point buy idea should help with encounter balance since encounters of specified difficulties will be using a specific amount of points and a Game Master can make encounters based on those points (kinda like armies in war games like Warhammer)

The fear here is that the point buy system will lead a player down a rabbit hole of poor build optimization or choice paralysis. I feel poor build optimization can be solved with allowing players to rebuild their character somewhat with a narrative beat (or in game mechanic for when I bring it over to the rpg but a system like that is common across RPGs so it's not a design flaw imo). The choice paralysis is. I think I need to guide players to cool endcap abilities or features along with features that require investing in multiple areas, like let's say applying poisons in combat without taking up turn resources is an investment in some kind of rogue aligned tree and an alchemy based tree. I think I am finding both Pathfinder and Fallout: New Vegas as inspiration for Horizontal Progression.

Now onto what I have so far for Character Creation. I think I am going to be giving the player about 50 total points they can use for creating a character but are required to use 20 for statistics (I am going to be running with D&D/Pathfinder stats) and 10 for Saving Throws as a minimum. I think players should be able to spend more on these if they would like but it would limit how much depth they get at level one. A player's "Heritage" will either cost points, give points, or be point neutral since if one Heritage gives more benefits or Horizontal potential I think it should cost a player and if a Heritage is very flavorful but punishing, the player should be able to try to use their points to help circumvent these issues or play into their strengths.

My issue I see with this could lead into ridiculous brews since how wide the system is. But that also might not be an actual issue. I need to nail down my specific demographic since this is an indie project and won't have wide appeal, I should find a niche and stick to it rather than trying to take on the juggernauts.

Some notes about my research into non-western piracy

I have begun my initial dive into non Caribbean Piracy and I have found some areas of interest I need to dig into, like the Chen Zuyi, a pirate from the 1400 to 1407 and the Wokou. Forgive me for spelling anything wrong as I am so far working off of Wikipedia as a help to find some primary sources.

Chen Zuyi seems like a very interesting character with little info in the West (unsurprisingly). He seemed to rule over Palembang which I happen to know where that is due to EU4 and my love for naval/trade gameplay as I have played the nation of Palembang and I knew they had an event to reform into a pirate republic. So it's really cool to actually learn a bit about this. I need to find some more primary sources about this man but it seems a bit hard with how little there is in English.

The Wokou were pirates who raided Korea and China from the 13th century to 17th. Again similar to Palembang, in EU4 you can play the Daimyo of So on Tsushima and reform into a Pirate Republic with an event referencing the Wokou, so I knew there was something in this region but that was it going into my initial research. Wikipedia has alot more info on this group but it seems to a bit controversial to claim that The Wokou are all Japanese, when there is evidence to point that the early Wokou were from several different ethnic groups where people whole lived on the fringes of society. Which makes me want to draw parallels to pirates during the golden age of piracy but I need to do more research.