Elements of Role Playing Games Design 101

Some basic elements of Role Playing Games design
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[@K_E_Robin]

Thank you Pauli! This was tremendously helpful for my own rpg system I'm currently designing!

[@HoroscopeZine]

Pauli! Thank you for sharing this! ❤️

[@julieannepatterson3295]

I enjoyed that. i have a bit stats knowledge. i like your discerptions, bell, linner, expontial and random and how they dictate the Pace of the game. Julie

[@Bryon1187]

I love bell curve mechanics.

[@ScottRuggels]

I do as well, especially for resolving ranged combat.

[@Bryon1187]

@@ScottRuggels I've even been tempted with substituting 3d6 for d20 systems (which interestingly enough ties in better with the bounded accuracy concept of DnD5e) 😁

[@LaceandSteelchannel]

@@ScottRuggels I prefer the probability distrubution of the good ol' 2D6! Though I keep thinking D12 need more love!

[@ScottRuggels]

@@LaceandSteelchannel D12s? That’s crazy talk as you get linear results. Bell curves for Bell curves results. 2D6 is fine but a bit granular. Linear distribution are fine for gambling and chart look ups, but I don’t like them for skills and to hit rolls.

[@ScottRuggels]

@@Bryon1187 Interesting. I would be interested to see the the results. It might be similar to how Mongoose Traveller resolves, though they have a lot of modifiers. ah

[@brendanrobertson5966]

Dice System: Albedo Card System: Lace & Steel - melee and magic; ranged and skills use dice system. Matrix/chart system: Darksword Adventures - at the top level, it didn't look bad but the underneath mechanics didn't work. Charts: RoleMaster - 1 in 600 chance of cutting your own head off when charging with a sword. Everything was computer crunched. Risk/Reward: Cortex Plus! or FEG StarWars - these are more 'story generator' systems than 'hard crunch' systems. The numbers don't mean a great deal. Stress mechanics: Cortex Plus again (Conan RPG uses the latest version, Cortex Prime) I'm in the middle of a design project and had to crunch all this a few weeks ago. Shifting the math by just 1 point had a big impact on the technical results.

[@ScottRuggels]

Fascinating discussion. I knew the mechanic systems, and my preference is for bell curves (Hero System, Mongoose Traveller, The Fantasy Trip), but I do remember using the Lace & Steel melee cards while waiting in line for a movie (also Ace of Aces dogfighting books, but the melee cards were faster). For me, I think a good system should have linear resolution for RL linear probabilities, and Bell curve for RL Bell curve probability.

[@emersoncarvalho3652]

Nice