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evilmagnus who's been talking about how there's gotta be a better way to do MMORPG stats. Here's something I've been thinking about in a rough overview.
This system is entirely skill-based. There are no classes. There are some base aptitudes, which are unchangeable, skills, and abilities--abilities let you do things like spell-casting and advanced combat features. They're similar to the D20 concept of Feats.
Skills are things like Swords, Defense, Toughness, Crafting, Social -- the variety and balance of skills depends entirely upon the content of the game.
The only way to raise skills is to train. Perhaps tehre is some way to do self-taught skill raising at some kind of a penalty. Dunno. But various NPCs will train you. But to get them to train you, you have to have good standing with them. The most obvious way to do that is to be a member of a guild.
But really, guilds are more like unions--not all give and no take like on current MMORPGs, but instead if you're a member of a guild, you have to pay dues of some sort--provide services. You gotta give to the guild so that you can get what the guild has to offer.
You can be members of multiple guilds; but then you gotta pay dues to all the guilds, or they will revoke your status.
Different guilds will then train you in different ways. Magic-user type guilds will have fairly minimal combat training. Etc.
This helps control the progression and still keep identifiable professions without sticking everyone into a class/level system. The only level, really, is the total number of XP you have available. And you spend that XP at trainers to get your skills and abilities.
evilmagnus who's been talking about how there's gotta be a better way to do MMORPG stats. Here's something I've been thinking about in a rough overview.This system is entirely skill-based. There are no classes. There are some base aptitudes, which are unchangeable, skills, and abilities--abilities let you do things like spell-casting and advanced combat features. They're similar to the D20 concept of Feats.
Skills are things like Swords, Defense, Toughness, Crafting, Social -- the variety and balance of skills depends entirely upon the content of the game.
The only way to raise skills is to train. Perhaps tehre is some way to do self-taught skill raising at some kind of a penalty. Dunno. But various NPCs will train you. But to get them to train you, you have to have good standing with them. The most obvious way to do that is to be a member of a guild.
But really, guilds are more like unions--not all give and no take like on current MMORPGs, but instead if you're a member of a guild, you have to pay dues of some sort--provide services. You gotta give to the guild so that you can get what the guild has to offer.
You can be members of multiple guilds; but then you gotta pay dues to all the guilds, or they will revoke your status.
Different guilds will then train you in different ways. Magic-user type guilds will have fairly minimal combat training. Etc.
This helps control the progression and still keep identifiable professions without sticking everyone into a class/level system. The only level, really, is the total number of XP you have available. And you spend that XP at trainers to get your skills and abilities.
