RP Illustration

Okay, so just tossing some ideas around here, but how would you make a scenic game? So each action would happen as describing a scene, and you'd switch off between characters, or something like that?

And magic, how would magic work? I don't like the Vancian system primarily because it doesn't feel very magical to me, it's more of a resource management system. Allot of the spells seem rather useless unless you know you're going to need them that day, and knowing what you're going to need on a given day is so random. How often do you actually know you are going to need anti-invisibility? If you can make a fireball with fire, why not a flaming sword, or a shield, or a dragon, or any number of other things? why can't you control the heat and the size and the shape and the duration? So you can do allot, but really you have a few spells you constantly invoke, and then one or two that you pull out on special occasions.

So I like magic where you can do lots of different things all the time and it's not what you "memorized" that day. And I like the idea of being able to switch out different systems easily, or even have multiple systems together. Holy magic I like to be big and powerful and rare and miraculous.

I saw a simultaneous fighting system that I really liked on another forum. It simplified fighting into engaging, retreating, and maintaining; reach, armor piercing, and guarding. The engage-retreat-maintain system works pretty well for a one-on-one battle, and then for anyone else adjacent to you are basically caught flat-footed unless you're an advanced enough fighter. Pretty elegant system for combat, or at least I thought so. It is basically a land based fighting style though. Water and Air fighting are dive bomb attacks, you go in and then you try to get the high ground and then you go in again. In the sky the high spot is always the advantage because stooping or swooping is the best offense and defense. In the water it's a little different because of the pressure and light differences changing levels so quickly to be practically alien worlds to each other. I don't think fish actually fight that much. When they do the social animals are always winning because they gang up on the loser.

Basic Character Stats

The ability scores are inspired with ideas from D&D and WOD.

STRENGTH (Str) active physicality

ENDURANCE (End) passive physicality

HEALTH (Hea) physical well-being

SOCIAL (Soc) active social ability 

CHARM (Cha) passive social ability 

REPUTATION (Rep) social well-being

WITS (Wit) active intelligence

WISDOM (Wis) passive intelligence

WILL (Wil) mental well-being

PERCEPTION

KNOWLEDGE

REFLEX

ASSETS

ARCANA (Arc) active magic ability

KI (Ki) passive magic ability

MANA (Man) magical well-being

SPELLS (Spe) spells known, flavor of magic

TEMPLATES- overall, long-term experiences influencing skills; "class"

SKILLS- specialization and training

ABILITIES- activated special abilities, usually linked to skills; "feats" or "spells"

Abilities are measured from 1-5, with 0 being a handicap, 1 being weak, 2 being average, 3 being good, 4 being very good, and 5 being extremely good. 

Ability points are then applied to a racial matrix, which determines actual ability scores. Each point represents +5 to the ability matrix, while a score of 0 implies a -10. The racial matrix determines size, movement types and speed, senses, cultures... lots of stuff. Also, men and women in humans and other races are different. In humans, men have a bonus (+10) to physical and women a bonus (+10) to social stats. If someone does not want to play cisgender, they can choose the neutral build of that race, which divides bonuses equally. 

The well-being of a set of stats determines whether the character can work at peak performance or not. Each time the character sustains damage (social, physical, or mental), that damage reduces the efficacy of that range of abilities. Characters reduced to 0 Health are bed-ridden, those with a Reputation of 0 are ostracized, and those with a Will 0 suffer a mental breakdown and are possibly catatonic. An injured character will not function at peak capacity. 

I like the idea of a triangle of physical abilities, allowing for 4 basic physical builds (Athlete, Runner, Tank, Average). 

Training can allow a character to regain peak levels and perhaps surpass them. If a character functions at past-peak level for an extended period of time, their peak can be increased, but this is fairly difficult.

Knowledge, Assets, Reflex, and Perception are problematic because they don't fall easily into the Mental-Physical-Social paradigm. They all effect more than just themselves. Reflex can be social quickness, Assets can pay for education (Knowledge), and Perception can aid mental, social, AND physical traits.