Journey: Ideas
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.
