Difference between revisions of "Journey: Ideas"

Revision as of 13:01, 26 June 2008

This is a page for random ideas. This isn't just for me (GW), but for everyone involved in the Journey development process.

If you have an idea for something to do with the system, throw it up here. This is a "meta" page, in the sense that it is not meant to be tied to any one concept; if it's related to Journey in some way, it's relevant.

The Basic Mechanics

Perhaps a straight d20 is not the way to go. I'm thinking a bit along the lines of mixing Houses of the Blooded (HotB) and Savage Worlds (SW).

Each ability score has two numbers associated with it, separated by a "d". So your Strength, rather than being an 18, is a 1d6. This indicates that, for any given Strength-based thing you do, the base die is 1d6.

With the XP-as-currency system, you can increase your ability scores. You do so by increasing the size of the die used: if you increase your Strength, it goes from 1d6 to 1d8. When it hits 1d12, you can spend slightly less points to turn it into 2d6. You then follow the progression again: 2d6 to 2d8, 2d8 to 2d10, 2d10 to 2d12, and so forth. There needs to be a reasonable cap here, somewhere; probably at 2d12, since that would turn into 4d6, which is just sort of ridiculous.

Then, based upon Potential (the Level replacement concept), you can add modifiers to these numbers. So if you spend, say, 1 XP, your Strength is now 1d6+1. Cap being your Potential. You could then say that each new plus requires XP equal to the new plus. So to get to a +3, you'd have to spend a total of 6 XP, and could only get that at a Potential of 3.

This would require that any sort of roll have an associated ability, or at least set of abilities (say that a roll is a Physical roll; that would mean that you have to use either your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution dice).

This does make damage and HP more wonky, though; if you have a Strength of 1d6 and a Constitution of 1d8, and you're an einhander, you'd be dealing 1d8+1d6, while have only d4+6+1d8 HP (presumably max'd? So... 18 HP).

Also, anything relying on an ability score modifier would no longer use that. Modifiers would be gone; instead, you use the dice associated with the ability (in essence, the score and the modifier become one in the same, and it's a random number instead of a straight number).

Cure for the Upward Spiral: The Downward Spiral

Skills, ability scores, and everything else you can do atrophies if you don't use it. You may be an awesome swordsman, but if you don't use that skill for thirty years, chances are good you're going to be rusty - your skill decreases.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no good way of doing this, without calling upon the in-game passage of time.

I'm not sure how to work this mechanically, but basically, the answer to the upward spiral is the idea of a downward spiral. Using abilities allows you to improve them, while not using some causes them to degrade over time. However, there should be some way to represent the fact that you were good once, to allow you to retain some skill regardless of lack of practice, and to allow you to quickly relearn the things you've forgotten ("I used to be a badass swordsman, but it's been twenty years... huh, and look at that, three weeks of practice and I'm good as new again.").

This allows for a feeling of increased power over time (the upward spiral), while also simulating the decay of unused skills over time (downward spiral), and allowing a character to bounce between them (useful for allowing older starting characters); it also means that a campaign could, in theory, go on forever, since it would hopefully be such that it would be nigh impossible for you to use all your abilities in the in-game time increment that causes your skills to decay.

Current Conclusion: The downward spiral has to occur at the same time the upward spiral does. As such, whenever your Potential increases, the game checks the character for decay, and applies decay appropriately.

Spending XP: The Core of the Upward Spiral

Character advancement is no longer tied to level. Huzzah! But advancement still happens, because the game would grow stale without it.

When you gain XP, you spend it. You keep track of the total XP you have spent, to determine when your Potential increases. There are two ways to spend XP:

• Immediate: Each of your Keys has a set of things or categories associated with it. Whenever you gain XP due to that Key, you can choose to immediately spend the XP on something from that list. You don't have to spend all of it, and you can choose to spend none of it.
  • Exception: Whenever you gain XP, instead of improving an ability or anything that requires XP, you can spend some XP to "maintain" an ability or skill you have already learned (see below).
• Training: You can choose to train. For each day you spend training, you can spend a number of XP equal to your current Potential; you spend the XP at the end of the training session, so you can spend XP on abilities that require more XP than your Potential. If you train, you can freely spend the XP on anything that requires XP to improve (which, ideally, would be anything and everything).

Ideally, everything will be improvable with XP.

Trained, Maintained, and Decay

Whenever you improve an ability with XP, or purchase a new ability with XP, note that it is a Trained ability. This mark never goes away. Also, mark it as a Maintained ability. Whenever you gain Potential, you will erase all Maintained marks (as noted above, you can spend XP to reinstate an ability's Maintained status).

When you gain Potential, note all abilities that are Trained but are not Maintained. Each of these abilities suffers a -1 decay penalty. Decay penalties stack, but have a maximum of one-half your Potential (so if you have a 15 Potential, you cannot suffer worse than a -7 decay penalty to any ability).

When you gain XP, you can choose to Maintain an ability you have. If you do, you must spend XP equal to the decay penalty on the ability; the penalty then decreases by 1 point.

This... might require some intense bookkeeping. If you have a better solution, post it!

Features: The Meat of a Character

With no levels, there are no classes - we have a classless system. Huzzah!

Everything you can purchase that isn't a stat is a Feature. Features come in a wide variety of flavors.

• Skill: A skill is something you have trained to do. Even things like combat ability are skills. Skills are active things, and as such, have dice associated with them. Example: You have Skill - Defense at 1d4+1.
• Feat: A feat is something nifty you can do, above and beyond what others can. Feats use your other abilities and even stats to determine how you use them. Example: You can use Shield Bash, based off of your Attack skill and Strength score. Or, you can use Magic Missile, based off of your Arcana skill and your Intelligence score.
• Trait: A trait is a general tendency to excel at something others don't. Unlike skills and feats, traits are passive. Traits make you better at what you already do. Example: You can have the Economize trait tied to one of your Craft skills.
• Proficiency: A proficiency is the ability to use something, like tools, armor, or weapons. Proficiencies are also passive, but unlike traits, they are binary - you either have them or you don't. This definition may change.
• Talent: A talent is similar to a feat, but isn't tied to a skill.

Cascading Class System

This would somewhat represent a system where any specific class would inherit "features" from it's parent class. For instance, there'd be a Melee/Ranged/Caster Tier, under each would have a more specialized definition, such as under Melee there could be the Rock/Paper/Scissors breakdown. Under each of those you'd have classes that fit under each tier, the scissors might have the einhander and perhaps some sort of punchin' d00d. Each Tier would have it's own stats tied to it, for instance the Top Tier (Melee, Ranged, Caster) might hold Hit die and defenses, scissors would hold BAB, and einhander would hold specific abilities, such as picking people in the teeth as a standard action.

Modular Framework

I'd be very interested to see some sort of generic framework for all the mechanics to fit nicely in. This could fit into the previously discussed Cascading Class System but hold every mechanic accountable. For instance, you'd have levels of granularity, being able to entirely ignore the bits in a tier below it. You could have a crafting Base tier, which says "Roll against these DCs", and then the next tier would say "modify the DCs for the type of material", and the tier below that would say "And modify the type of material based on location found, and it's level of quality". This could be extrapolated for almost every mechanic, truly allowing for a system that could be for everyone's taste.