The Evolution of a Roleplaying System
This is a long one folks... :)
I got my first real taste of roleplaying with AD&D ("2nd Ed as we called it"). It was fun, but as I got into the creative side I quickly saw its flaws and tried to create my own systems. There were a lot of good ideas along the way. However it all changed with the release of 3rd Edition.
It was simpler than 2E in many ways while giving more options. However about the time "3.5" was getting ready to come out, I began work on the system for my world. I had been using 3E for games in it for a long time, but I was looking at a different time period and I wanted a whole new feel. It would be a d20 system and I had gotten some thoughts from my previous works and from d20 systems like the Conan d20 system and "Mutants and Masterminds".
So I began work on the first edition of my roleplaying system. I wanted a classless system, so I took a cue from Mutants and Masterminds and made a point buy system for abilities. I wanted different ways to defend (parry and dodge) and a grittier, more realistic feel. The new rules were like a wrapper over top of 3.5E D&D rules and worked well for the most part. However, it meant that it got all of D&D's idiosyncrasies and balance issues. But I was satisfied enough at the time.
Then came the roleplaying book that changed my thinking. Star Wars, Saga Edition. A vastly simplified set of d20 rules which was much sleeker and easier to use. Seeing the possibilities I scrapped the first edition and started a second edition based on the Saga rules. I took things a bit further than I had before, where I had removed class, and now I removed levels. I sat down and designed an all new and original set of toxin rules and magic rules. The game had little in common with 3.5E anymore other than a fantasy setting.
It got some serious refinements over the next several months, then came D&D 4th Edition. I looked at that system and preferred mine. However, it did have some nifty ideas - Mostly in how to handle proficiencies. I took those ideas to make a "2.5" edition of my rules. It was a fairly major overhaul as it affected attacks so I had to rework defenses. Then I got into the major work of playtesting. For a long time 2.5 got a lot of playtesting (along with tweaks and fixes along the way).
In the end, however, there were still some minor annoyances that came from its ties to D&D. After brainstorming for a while and looking at systems that were not d20 at all, I knew what the system needed. It meant, however, that one of the last remnants of the "old school" would change completely. The sacred cow of "attributes". So I got rid of the old "3 to 18" scale of attributes that has been around since the earliest version of D&D and did something new. A scale that starts at 0 and the attribute number is your bonus.
It sounds simple enough but the system had been balanced around the bonus or penalties of the 3 to 18 system. It had to be retooled for a world with no penalties. Thus we now have the third (and likely final) edition of my roleplaying system. The annoying issues are gone and the few platests so far point to a success in the tweaked system. A culmination of nearly seventeen years of game design. And the scary part is how I find myself unwilling to GM for any other system any more.
So does that mean I have found my own personal perfect system? Probably yes. Other systems don't excite me to GM. I will play characters, but the other systems now feel so unwieldy compared to mine (To me). Which is too bad in many ways. Perhaps someone will come along with a system that will blow my mind and make me rethink things - And I pray for that day because that system is going to be AWESOME. :)
I got my first real taste of roleplaying with AD&D ("2nd Ed as we called it"). It was fun, but as I got into the creative side I quickly saw its flaws and tried to create my own systems. There were a lot of good ideas along the way. However it all changed with the release of 3rd Edition.
It was simpler than 2E in many ways while giving more options. However about the time "3.5" was getting ready to come out, I began work on the system for my world. I had been using 3E for games in it for a long time, but I was looking at a different time period and I wanted a whole new feel. It would be a d20 system and I had gotten some thoughts from my previous works and from d20 systems like the Conan d20 system and "Mutants and Masterminds".
So I began work on the first edition of my roleplaying system. I wanted a classless system, so I took a cue from Mutants and Masterminds and made a point buy system for abilities. I wanted different ways to defend (parry and dodge) and a grittier, more realistic feel. The new rules were like a wrapper over top of 3.5E D&D rules and worked well for the most part. However, it meant that it got all of D&D's idiosyncrasies and balance issues. But I was satisfied enough at the time.
Then came the roleplaying book that changed my thinking. Star Wars, Saga Edition. A vastly simplified set of d20 rules which was much sleeker and easier to use. Seeing the possibilities I scrapped the first edition and started a second edition based on the Saga rules. I took things a bit further than I had before, where I had removed class, and now I removed levels. I sat down and designed an all new and original set of toxin rules and magic rules. The game had little in common with 3.5E anymore other than a fantasy setting.
It got some serious refinements over the next several months, then came D&D 4th Edition. I looked at that system and preferred mine. However, it did have some nifty ideas - Mostly in how to handle proficiencies. I took those ideas to make a "2.5" edition of my rules. It was a fairly major overhaul as it affected attacks so I had to rework defenses. Then I got into the major work of playtesting. For a long time 2.5 got a lot of playtesting (along with tweaks and fixes along the way).
In the end, however, there were still some minor annoyances that came from its ties to D&D. After brainstorming for a while and looking at systems that were not d20 at all, I knew what the system needed. It meant, however, that one of the last remnants of the "old school" would change completely. The sacred cow of "attributes". So I got rid of the old "3 to 18" scale of attributes that has been around since the earliest version of D&D and did something new. A scale that starts at 0 and the attribute number is your bonus.
It sounds simple enough but the system had been balanced around the bonus or penalties of the 3 to 18 system. It had to be retooled for a world with no penalties. Thus we now have the third (and likely final) edition of my roleplaying system. The annoying issues are gone and the few platests so far point to a success in the tweaked system. A culmination of nearly seventeen years of game design. And the scary part is how I find myself unwilling to GM for any other system any more.
So does that mean I have found my own personal perfect system? Probably yes. Other systems don't excite me to GM. I will play characters, but the other systems now feel so unwieldy compared to mine (To me). Which is too bad in many ways. Perhaps someone will come along with a system that will blow my mind and make me rethink things - And I pray for that day because that system is going to be AWESOME. :)