Role-Playing Game Update

Well, I was going to start the series on various magical traditions that I promised, but I’m still fairly ill and my brain is having trouble wrapping itself around pretty much anything at the moment. I’ve barely touched my papers for the week and it’s already Thursday… so you know that’s a problem. Anyway, I haven’t posted an update about the Avnul RPG (it’s still not going to be called that) in quite some time, and I wanted to let you know that Erik and I are still working on it… although with both of us being quite busy the work is going slowly. We had originally hoped to have a finished product by this Christmas, but right now it looks like next Christmas  (2013) is probably the earliest that we can target. However, the work is progressing well, if not quickly. The game is still very skills heavy, but those skills are now being supplemented by dozens of abilities that various character types can choose from.

Players will be basing their starting characters off of one of four general archetypes: Warriors (such as soldiers, martial artists, or mercenaries), Magicians (such as priests, sorcerers, or alchemists), Scholars (such as Philosophers, Mathematicians, or Doctors), and Businessmen (such as merchants, crime lords, or artisans). However, within each archetype there is a very wide range of possible backgrounds, and a character is never limited to what he starts as, so a player who begins as a martial artist might add magical abilities or a business to his character through play.

We also have the rules for skill use, combat, spell-casting, and other sundries finished and waiting to be play-tested, and right now we are working on filling out some of the sections that still have minimal ability support, and the rules for gaining/losing societal status, buying and selling merchandise, and all the little specifics that make a game great. We still have a lot of work to do before the game is where we want it, but once we get there it will definitely be something worth playing. It is also worth noting that everything necessary to play the game will be in a single core rule book that focuses on the Five Cities of the Longminjong. We do plan on writing supplementary books that provide expanded fluff, abilities, and the extra rules needed to play games set in other areas of Avnul (such as among the Yamakuni, Narut, or Neshelim), but these books certainly won’t be necessary for basic play.

Erik and I have also discussed a variety of ways to keep costs down when it does come time to launch the game. We both love role-playing, and we also both hate paying $30-$40 for a hundred and fifty page book. Now, admittedly, we haven’t even started looking at getting artwork done for the books, so we can’t really estimate the costs yet, but we’re hoping to keep prices reasonable (something closer to $10-$20/book).  Like I said, I can’t make any promises yet, but that’s the dream right now! Feel free to let me know if you have any ideas.

Roleplaying in Avnul: Backgrounds and Dedications

So many ways to hurt people...

I introduced the new roleplaying game set in the world of Avnul about a month ago.  Don’t worry, it still doesn’t have an official title :).  I mentioned that it will have a few fairly unique mechanics and I want to talk about a couple of those today.  As Erik and I were discussing how we wanted the rpg to develop we concluded that we wanted to stay away from strict class development systems (ala Dungeons and Dragons), but still wanted to strongly represent the background and training that each character has had access too.

The traditional class system is far too stringent for the kind of game that we have in mind – we want you to have the freedom to develop your character’s as you desire.  If you want to focus on one thing (say a single area of magic) then you can become very, very good at it.  However, if you want to be good at several things (say magic, sword-fighting, and playing the lute) you can do that as well, but you won’t be as good at any of them.  We wanted it to be possible for you to develop your characters in just about any way you can think of.  That being said, one of the primary goals of the game is to reflect reality.  Every person has a background, and that background has a significant affect on the skills that we have developed.

...and to help people...

This is where the background system comes in.  Every character in the game will have a background (currently we have about 25 different backgrounds that you can choose from) that will determine certain things about your starting character.  Each background will require you to put a number of your points in certain attributes and skills in order to reflect how your history has shaped you.  The background will also provide you with a package (or sometimes a choice of packages) for your starting equipment, and many also offer you certain free abilities.  This is far from unique, but it leads us to the dedication system.

Think of a dedication as an expansion of your characters background.  Certain backgrounds require a focused skill set that can vary widely (e.g. martial arts training or spell casting) and there are ways to get access to these dedications even if your background does not strictly require it.  If you choose to select a background that requires such a skill set, then you will have the chance to choose either a Martial Dedication or a Magical Dedication (depending on your background).  A dedication is more than just a fancy name.  In fact, it will define the way your character fights or casts spells.  For instance a character with the Chanshi martial dedication rolls his opponents strength for his damage rolls.  This reflects the fact that the Chanshi martial art focuses on techniques that turn an opponent’s attacks against him.  On the other hand a character with the Yinyoushi martial dedication would roll her dexterity for her damage rolls, expressing the styles reliance on precision.

Each martial dedication will allow the character to use certain weapons, types of armor, and types of unarmed attacks that reflect what that martial style teaches.  The style will also determine what skill or attribute the character rolls to hit an opponent, to damage an opponent, and to dodge incoming attacks.  This system will allow players to build characters with radically different fighting styles, and allow characters with vastly different physical make-ups and skill sets to fight effectively.

...all available inside your mind.

Similarly a spell-casting character’s Magical Dedication will determine how that character casts his spells, and what types of magic the character can cast.  Each dedication will have access to certain types of magic that others don’t, and will determine what attributes have a significant affect on the character’s spell-casting, and how many spells a character can learn.

Obviously, the dedication system will provide a significant variety to how you build your martial and magical characters.  However, it will make it important to examine the different dedications that your character might have access too carefully, before choosing which one you want to use – although it is possible for a character to have more than one dedication.

Role-Playing Game set in Avnul

RPGs bring people together. They might be weird people, but their together.

I love role-playing games (rpgs), and have for a long time.  They’re fun, social, healthy, expressive, and creative (among other things).  Like anything you can get obsessed, have mistaken priorities, or lose touch with reality, but hopefully you’ll have a group that will set you straight if you go to far.

There are a lot of great games on the market.  Although I’m not a fan of 4th Edition, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 is a fun, well put together game, as is Pathfinder.  You can also get a kick out of Serenity, Exalted, World of Darkness, Legend of the Five Rings, Star Wars RPG, and a myriad of others.  However, instead of contacting one of these companies, Erik Marsh and I have been working on a whole new system that we think should bring the world of Avnul to life in the best way possible.

With all of these great systems already in place you might be asking yourself,’Why would you make a new one?’ The answer is simple, none of these systems can adequately reflect the world of Avnul and its intricacies in the way that we would like them to.  There will be some similarities to several of the above systems, simply because certain systems already do things in the best way possible, but we also have some new systems that we hope will make it easy and fulfilling to play any kind of character that you can imagine.

The system doesn’t have a name yet, and we still have a lot of work to do, but I plan to post sporadic updates about our progress as we work our way through alpha and beta testing, and then as we hone the finer points of the system prior to publication.  I’ll probably also post some art as we get it in.

Dungeons and Dragons, the original role playing game

So, some basic information:

• The game will run off of a dice 10 based system that has more similarities to Legend of the Five Rings than Exalted (if you are familiar with either of these systems)
• The game features several unique mechanics including the Dedications mechanic, the Business system, the Power-level system for spell casting, and the Age mechanic that will be discussed further in later posts
• The game is entirely set in the world of Avnul and, eventually, all of the races and cultures present will be playable
• The core rulebook will provide rules and settings for games set in the Five Cities of the Longminjong, and among the Saru tribes of the jungle north of it

As I said, I do plan to provide further updates, though they will be sporadic.  I know Erik and I are very excited about this, and I hope you are too.