Forums » RP Discussion » Thoughts on Formulas

So recently I decided to give my monstrous aberration a bit of an overhaul, and the majority of it was giving his combat-related abilities dice mechanics, as well as custom stats and damage formulas to work with in the midst of an RP. Of course I am more than happy to do the math myself for people should it ever come up in an IC situation, but...

http://www.rprepository.com/c/welcometothevoid/6866 (I would suggest reading everything on this page, including things in collapsibles of course)

Would this ever work at all, or do you guys think I've gone too far? Once again, I take calculations on myself IC if I ever get to use this, and if other characters need stats scaled and/or adjusted to meet this little system then I'm happy to give a crack at it as well. Thoughts, please!

My first reaction is that it's too complex for the end result - that's just my personal take on it. Dice mechanics should aid a roleplay in fair development, with roleplaying still being the focus in my opinion. To me it's about fair play and balance, and dice are a helpful tool to achieve that. But that's all they are to me - tools. If they become the center of attention, the purpose of a roleplay shifts from being creative writing with chance events, to checking rules, formulas and mechanics.

In most situations, a simplified system works well. I think Kim took you through the sample system she used in an article to show you how it works out. For the majority of people it seems to do the trick. There are variations to everyone's preferences of course!

I think if your target audience is RPR, your system will not be used much. It's too complex for something that ought to be relatively simple for what most of us write. But all it takes is the right people to play with to make it work, so if there are enough who find this system fun, you've got a working formula.

That said, I'd prefer sticking to the simplified system Kim wrote, or even just 1d2 rolls for a 'yes' or 'no' answer to whether something should or shouldn't happen. I'm much more interested in random plot twists and 'let's assume this happened because it seems fair' situations than hardcore dice usage.

BIG EDIT: Lemme toss what I had said in this post so I can say that this system is a nominal thing. If someone DOES NOT want to use it, then I'll figure something else out. Besides, even when this is used, it's almost exclusively a combat mechanic and NOT something that's meant to be used even when picking up a pen or buying something from a store. I'll figure out stuff (mainly) in the background then put up results when this stuff is in use.

ANOTHER EDIT: In cases where these mechanics are applied, I would work with people to get character stats sorted out to fit, and that would pretty much be where them working with me to crunch the numbers would extend. Otherwise, yeah.

FINAL EDIT: Upon giving it more thought, you're right. I'll keep the formulas around on a text file on my comp, but I think people oughta be smart enough to know that when a massive beam of darkness collides with their character, it's gonna do some big damage.

Are you still looking for input? If you are, I'd be more than happy to go over it and give some.

If you really, REALLY want to, but I mainly advise against it, at least as far as RPR goes since I tossed them more or less. I'll PM you stuff if you're absolutely sure!