Mmm, that would be a nice way to individualize a character. For instance, I'd take some sort of persuasion-related perk for my cleric in a heartbeat!

Certainly! I have intended to do this all along. Just having a blank on how to implement it.

So, I need all of your help and suggestions on this one!

I need your advice:

1.) What skills/perks would you like to pick from?

2.) Should certain skills/perks be limited to certain classes, to preserve some character consistency?

3.) How should it be implemented? In other words, how should skills/spells be "earned"?

4.) Should there be skill/spell "trees" to advance along, and if so, should they be
class-based or not?

5.) Should new skills/spells be "static" as they are now. In other words, possible to use over and over again? Or should there be one-time-use abilities?

I encourage everyone that's interested to answer this questionnaire to help me prepare the "extras" in a way that works for all of us.
That sounds interesting. Would that be more of an out of combat type effect?
A "Ward" spell sounds great!

Absolutely an out of combat thing. There would be many occasions where having someone along that could persuade NPC's to cooperate could aid the party. Different classes taking the perk might gain special effects - for instance, a "good" cleric speaking to a "good" NPC might have the opportunity to appeal to their religious beliefs (or guilt) if they had the perk. On the other hand, a persuasive berserker might be one that could threaten and bully someone rather than killing them outright.

And wards would be a lot of fun in so many situations. In fact, more mage-ish classes might enjoy warning wards (for instance, if there had been a ward in the first room in our dungeon we're exploring, we might have had advance warning that something was approaching).

Questionnaire:

1.) What skills/perks would you like to pick from?

Well, that would vary, but I think they should be two distinct things. For instance, clerics might be able to specialize in healing, or in divine smiting. Or they could specialize in an alignment, being good or evil. These would be exclusionary choices. The other type of skills would be generic things that anyone could take - learning another language, or being skilled with machinery, or being a particularly good speaker, or perhaps packing a backpack properly (to enable them to carry an extra item), or pyromania, so they could turn liquor bottles into molotov cocktails. Possibilities are endless, really.

2.) Should certain skills/perks be limited to certain classes, to preserve some character consistency?

Absolutely on the first I mention above. On the second, I think some would be exclusive. For instance, a berserker might not be able to learn a second language. On the other hand, a mage or cleric might never have learned to pack a satchel properly.

3.) How should it be implemented? In other words, how should skills/spells be "earned"?

I'd enjoy a system similar to the Fallout games where a perk could be chosen every level, or every few levels. If they're arranged as perks, they could be specializations OR skills (see above). Even better would be special perks, that you could earn by completing specific goals in missions. For instance, in the campaign the other group just finished, completing the party without entering combat might have earned them a surprise reward (not announced beforehand) of a perk called "Socialite," which gives them the persuasion skill automatically when they are at a formal party or banquet.

4.) Should there be skill/spell "trees" to advance along, and if so, should they be
class-based or not?

Eww, no. Skill trees have been done to death. Some perks might have more advanced versions, but it's far more fun to meet the requirements and go ahead and take a perk you want. Class-based would make sense for some perks, of course.

5.) Should new skills/spells be "static" as they are now. In other words, possible to use over and over again? Or should there be one-time-use abilities?

I don't like static effects. I think they should be ranked in three tiers. Tier one would be simple, obvious things - attacking with a weapon, speaking to someone, or moving. Tier two would be things like a priest casting healing, and they could only perform tier two actions a certain number of times without resting, although they'd have quite a few times they could perform these actions. Tier three might be something incredibly powerful, but a person might be able to perform it only once before resting (say, a priest warding an entire room) and the cooldown would be per ability. This system would make people think before burning out all their healing spells in a single fight (*cough cough* like me *cough cough*).

These are just my thoughts, obviously. I've dabbled in designing a forum RPG before, so you'll forgive my getting carried away - these are just suggestions!

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

One thing that I really loved was the idea of earning skills based on quests. Very interesting suggestion.

I know that there are thousands of possibilities for abilities, but I will need all of your help in compiling a list! Together we can be much more creative. So please, if there are any spells, skills, abilities, anything you would like to see at all.... please everyone, let me know! Also, please be sure to be as *specific* as possible about your skill/spell/perk suggestions. I have played some games before, but not all of them, so I won't necessarily know what you mean unless you spell it out.

Now this part right here is very important. We have had iterations of this game before and one of the biggest problems we've had is that it can get out of control... with all sorts of rules conflicts and such. So, that's one thing I really want to avoid here. Can we implement all of these extras without it becoming out of control and too complicated for new characters? As it is, we're already having a problem getting new recruits, so I'm not sure we should set the barrier for entry too high. :(

I would like to speak about the "sleep" feature: how would you feel about the following ideas - This is a question for everyone:

1.) Go back and revise all skills/spells so that they can only be used once each before sleeping/resting?

2.) Every level, a character can pick one skill or spell and increase it's maximum uses before sleeping by 1, OR, pick a new perk?

1.) What skills/perks would you like to pick from?

-In my one, very short play of Fallout 3, it had some really nice touches! Stuff like every kill being incredibly bloody, or even a random stranger popping up and assisting you in battle. I think it'd be cool to curry favour, or intimidate others in dialogue, or purely by the character's presence!

Just being greedy for a moment, it'd be cool to maybe have something that allows for a greater chance of critical hits in battle. When I play RPG's, my characters tend to lean towards being more suave and able in dialogue, and that's how I always imagined Kemuel to be. So there are a lot of options!




2.) Should certain skills/perks be limited to certain classes, to preserve some character consistency?

-I think so! I think that would help to really differentiate the classes. We could also create two pools of perks, one generic set that everyone can pick from, and one specifically for the character class. Things may get complex though! :S




3.) How should it be implemented? In other words, how should skills/spells be "earned"?

-I guess by levelling up? I also love the idea of earning them via quest!! That'd like a real, tangible reward for adventuring, on top of awesome loot!




4.) Should there be skill/spell "trees" to advance along, and if so, should they be
class-based or not?

-If we do go along with skill trees, then I think keeping them class based would be neat. Maybe instead of progressing a perk via a tree, we could have it so by levelling up the perk is automatically increased in power or likelihood?




5.) Should new skills/spells be "static" as they are now. In other words, possible to use over and over again? Or should there be one-time-use abilities?

-I guess this depends on the perk. There are bound to be some which would be 'on' all the time and others which could be called upon as and when needed. Also if it involves something that is physically demanding, then perhaps unlimited use is a bit questionable.

Once a character has a perk, we could roll for the effectiveness of the perk along with the action itself.

More to come, but my pizzas here! lol

I think the way to go about it is to leave current skills/spells in place, but limit each "unique" spell/skill to one use before resting. Then allow each class to either: take an extra use of a spell/skill they currently have, or add 1 use of a new spell/skill.

This way the classes remain, for the most part, the same as they were (with the exception that each unique skill/spell only has 1 use before resting), would make people feel "good" about leveling up, and give you a lot of customization options while keeping classes to differentiate. It also makes more sense of healing spells... as one character should not be able to fully heal his companions over and over again after a battle.

I want to go this route mostly because I believe it gives you guys what you want, while not drastically altering the rules.

It's completely up to you, of course, but did you realize that for all magical classes, the only useful things they can do are active skills? This means that all mages, clerics, druids, and the like are useless until high levels. This will create a dynamic where magical classes will use their useful abilities and retreat until the end of the combat, at which point everyone will have to nap at least once until they're all back to normal.

Would you care to expand upon that thought a bit?

The funny thing is, I kinda felt the opposite... like Knight (and Warrior, Berserker, etc.) doesn't have much to "do" in comparison with magic classes.

So if I understand you correctly, you envision a situation in which most of your actions are determined more by specific skills rather than strict roleplay?

I'm fine with that too, but I didn't think you looked at it that way, since you do a lot of free-form roleplay in your posts and have allowed me to interpret effects. Maybe what you were trying to drive at is that you want to see more clearly expressed skills, not less?

Either way, a good way to bypass this would be to make it so that a character begins with 3 uses for each skill/spell instead. This way, you would have the potential of 21 total "special" ability uses per quest at level 1, and you would get an extra one each level. (Including new stuff.)

Then again, I really think the only types of spells that are problematic among the base classes are the healing ones. Perhaps I can just make a slight tweak and clarify that they are only useable during combat? That way, everyone's "basic" spells/skills could be infinite but we might still make the perks limited (use once per rest), gain an extra use for each level you invest, that sort of thing. <---- Yep, this is the idea I'm liking right now. Preserves core characteristics of classes, allows for plenty of variation, strong incentive to increase in level and avoids the "fire and retreat" thing you were talking about (I understand what you meant better now.)

I agree with Stoic

The last part of the post above?

Yes. Mages are useless without spells. Unlike my Shadow Knight Class which has Melee capabilities, a pure mage or even a necromancer would kinda suck if they ran out of magic in the midst of battle.

Ok that works. It's going to take me a long time to come up with the extra spells/skills list though.

Just let me know the basics of what you want and I'll adapt a few spells from my book to use here.

Let's see, let me do this in order.

1. Yes.

2. Absolutely not. I cut my roleplaying teeth in a freeform forum, where the only rules were when a GM stepped in to retcon an action or warn us against something a bit too godmoddish.

3. No, quite the opposite. By tying a specific number of uses to a skill, you are inherently defining that skill. It turns it back into a game instead of roleplaying. Quite alright, if that's what you're after, but I prefer my skill in roleplaying and the influence of the DM to affect my character's abilities. I enjoy having the freedom to roleplay a specifically heroic or skilled act and be rewarded, or for the DM to decide my character has not been behaving in a way appropriate for his faith and temporarily strip him of his powers until he repents, for instance. Just an example, of course.

4. I did think of a simple solution for the healing spell problem last night. I think the difficulty is that our characters still should have a need for first aid, bandages, potions, medications, and the like, but a cleric or druid can completely negate this. I would suggest keeping healing spells on the same functionality as any other, but make their effects temporary. Like any other buff, they could have a slightly randomized duration. Although they restore health, when they expire, the person loses the extra health gained to a minimum of 1hp (or an amount of your choosing). Durations and effect strength could falter as the cleric tries to keep more people healed and moving, making magical healing very tactical and completely separate from other forms. Again, just an idea.

I do like this idea, however, it would be annoying to track... no offense. How about this: healing spells reduce in power every time you use them (until you rest, which restores them to maximum power)?