Game Engine for RPG (Project Grey)

[Luinil]

Okies guys, I have a question for you. I am looking for some help making a game engine for an on the shelf RPG. I don't know if you will help or not, but I am trying to create a system for a game from scratch. I have something already drawn up but it is sorely lacking. Likely this will go nowhere, but maybe we will get a working system out of this.

Project Grey.

More details to follow.

[Luinil]

Ok, I have 8 stats for a character right now, but I might add one or two more. So far we have:

Strength (STR) -- Physical Strength
Speed (SPD) -- Quickness and Speed
Awareness (AWR) -- Awareness of surroundings and intentions
Tactical (TAC) -- Thinking Skills, especially for battle
Dexterity (DEX) -- Hand Eye Coordination
Agility (AGI) -- Flexibility and dodging skill
Spirit (SPRT) -- Vitality and Magic
Luck (LUCK) -- Helps you catch a break.

[Luinil]

The Attributes are increased based on characters choice at level up. All attributes start at 1 when creating a character and the player gets 5 points to divide between the skills he wants.

The system is based on 8 sided dice. Here is the chart of dice for Primary Attributes:

Attribute	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Dice	1d8	1d8+1	1d8+2	2d8	2d8+1	2d8+2	3d8	3d8+1	3d8+2	4d8
Attribute	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Dice	4d8+1	4d8+2	5d8	5d8+1	5d8+2	6d8	6d8+1	6d8+2	7d8	7d8+1
Attribute	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Dice	7d8+2	8d8	8d8+1	8d8+2	9d8	9d8+1	9d8+2	10d8	10d8+1	10d8+2

Attribute Bonus:

Attribute	1 - 4	5 - 8	9 - 13	14 - 17	18 - 20	21-23	24-26	27-29	30
BONUS	0	1d4	1d6	1d8	1d10	2d6	2d8	2d10	2d10+1d6

[Luinil]

Here is a quick view of some calculations of for battle.

Hit Points= (SPRT Roll) + (STR Roll)
Spirit Points= (SPRT Roll)

Hit Roll= (DEX Roll) + (STR Bonus) *Roll used To Hit*
Evade= (AGI Roll) + (SPD Bonus) *Number used To Evade*
*Note* To Hit: Hit Roll must beat Enemy Evade

Damage= (STR Roll) + (Weapon Bonus)

AC = Armor Class Rating DMG Absorb

[Luinil]

Now that the important parts that need work are out here, I want people to help me fine tune this if you can. Some friends have already suggested things (Thanks Unsight) and I have made a couple of changes. Nothing is set in stone, and I would like to get this working.

[Luinil]

Hrmm... thinking maybe that this currently will make one Attribute more important (vastly) than the others. Thinking about using a skill based system and remove attributes completely.

[Kenzomatic]

Can you explain a little more on where you are headed with this?

Like what is the medium/software you're using?
How do you see a game being played (describe)?
Is this just a tool for calculations like a guide book?

Skill based seems much better then again I am making quite a few assumtion about your implimtation of things.

[El Duderino]

Yeah I´m really no good with the numbers and calculation systems in RPGs... I used to play the german version of D&D but the rules confused me...

[Luinil]

Well I was not sure exactly how I want to use this... It was originally planned to see if I could get it working for a DS game a friend and I were toying with ideas of creating. Now it seems this would not have been the correct system to use.

So, for a game like D&D Champions of Krynn or Death Knights of Krynn I was thinking it might be possible to use the same format as those games but use a new rule set. The basic gameplay is you have an overworld, town/dungeon crawling, and battle scenes. The overworld is very simple, you are a square and you move around on the map between towns and dungeons. You can get in fights here. Town/Dungeon crawling is you have an First-person view of what your group is seeing.
You move around using the arrow keys and you have to solve problems, get in fights, beat the boss, etc. The battle scenes are like this:
Screen Shots
You move your characters around on the map and have (usually) random maps for your battle. You have to make sure at least one of your party survives, or else the game is over.

Now I would like to create a "simple" game like this, but even that is a lot of work. Unless we can get a good backbone for a system there is no point in trying to make a game. The bigger problem is... I can't program worth crap. I know the syntax of C well enough to follow on some low level stuff but I am no programmer...

[Luinil]

Okay, so we are moving on to try out some new ideas here. A skill based system, where attributes play little to no part at all. The skills will be based in one of three areas: Physical, Spiritual, Situational.

Every skill will fall into one of those three areas. For example, Melee and ranged attacks, defense, and health are physical. Magic, Magic stamina(points), Magic Defense, Mental skills, etc. are Spiritual. Charisma, person-to-person communication (subversive, convincing, etc.), luck, etc. are in Situational.

In a Pen and Paper version, if you want to name a skill and create it from scratch you can, within reason and allowed by the DM. A software based game will not have as much freedom however. There will be large branching trees/clouds of skills available. I hope to make it large enough to choose wisely your skills/skill path so it makes a finely tuned character of your choice.

There will be levels that characters earn. At each level a character will be granted skill points to buy a skill or skills with. The skills available will be based on level and the skill path they have chosen. You can't be a skilled level 5 swordsman and then switch the next points to level 6 spear master. Likewise you will need to choose your skills based on what you want to become.

So far that is what I have come up with.

[Unsight]

In a Pen and Paper version, if you want to name a skill and create it from scratch you can, within reason and allowed by the DM.

My starting skills will be:

Thundershock
Tail Whip
Quick Attack
Surf

How does that sound?

[Luinil]

A quick example list/guideline for skills as you level up.

**Strength Skills**
Fierce Attack--Damage x 1.5
Cleave--Damage x 1 + Ignores Armor rating
Hack 'n Slash--Damage x 1.5 + Group Attack
Gash--Damage x1.5 + Bleeding for next 2 turns
"Berserk"--Rage filled attacks that don't cease until stamina is drained, or attacker/defender dies.

**Speed Skills**
Quick Step--Attack First Next Round
Haste--Speed is increased
Multiple Turns--Grants multiple Actions in a single turn. Number of actions based on Speed.
"Teleport"--Move at the Speed of Light AKA. Instantaneous Movement

**Awareness Skills**
Anticipate--Awareness is increased
First Strike--A Defense move that allows the character to attack the enemy that is attacking him. Much like a counter attack, except the character doesn't try to dodge the attack.
To Hit Bonus--Bonus to next 2 To Hit rolls
To Evade Bonus--Bonus to next 2 To Evade rolls
"Pre-Cognition"

**Tactical Skills**
Decern--Learns the attack pattern and an enemy and logs in a book
Strategy--Details best way to combat enemies logged in the book
Dual Attack--A group attack by 2 teammates
Tri Attack--A group attack by 3 Teammates
"Full Team Attack"--A group attack by the full team.

**Dexterity Skills**
Hit placement--Increases Chance of Critical attack
Double Attack--Attacks twice
Quick Draw--Adds Speed bonus to hit roll
Counter Attack--Adds ability to Counter Attack
"Critical Attack"--If you land your next hit, it will be a critical attack

**Agility Skills**
Dodge--Increases Evade% roll for the next round
Evade--Increases Evade% roll for the next 5 rounds
"Perfect Dodge"--Character cannot be hit until this wears off.

**Spirit Skills**
Elemental Form--Transform into character's Elemental Form
Damage Absorb--Spirit points absorb Damage (% of Damage absorbed = % of Spirit Points of character) eg. SP 20/40 = Damage Absorbed: 50%
Raise Spirit--Spirit Points are Recovered
Raise Defense--Adds bonus to damage absorb roll the next time you are attacked

**Luck Skills**
Dumb Luck--An Auto-skill that increases roll based on high luck
Gamble--High risk attack for critical or deathblow
Lucky Break--An Auto-skill that reverses the current roll in character's favor

**Jumping Skills**
Jump attack--Attack from the air, Damage x1.5 + %Chance of critical
Down Thrust--Attack from the air, Damage x2 - Hit bonus
High leap--Mario type attack, except with weapon, Damage x2 Takes 2 rounds to complete, round 1: in the air, round 2: attack
Air Barrage--Multiple attacks from the air, number based on SPD and DEX

[Kenzomatic]

As far as the program to use I would recomend Flash. I know there have been a few that where converted for the DS and PSP and I've been told by a number of people that many places use flash to build the games, obviously not the 3d ones.

I have a few friends that work for various companies doing flash games. They of-course are the artist so they don't know a ton of Action scripting (flashs programing language of which there is now 3 versions), but between the many conversations we have had the only real thing that seemed difficult would be saving game data.

Almost everything else can be done through simple if else scenarios.

Example:

if this happens go to/do this
else do this

if this happens tell thingy_1 x =5
else x=6

if x=5 kill kangaroo
else urple purple

if x=6 characters dies
else busy bee attacks screen

There is also a random number script that I don't beleive is to hard to find or use.

Of-course this is all assuming it would be an individual effort. If its multi-player then it would be expodentially more difficult. Like super uper duper more difficult.

[El Duderino]

Skills I like:

Furious Rage:
increses attack speed for four turns by
Lv.1 100% Lv.2 200%...

Drunken Master:
Enemies in a radius miss 30% of their attacks and take 100% fire damage

Shock:
does medium electric damage at medium mana cost but has a 20% chance to stun for 1 turn

Cloak:
Caster becomes invisible for five turns and does crit. damage if attacking out of cloak... later levels: assassins cloak (more criit damage), mass cloak...

Frost attack:
For five turns the caster does +20% Cold damage, affected enemies get -30% attack speed and -40% movement speed

Unholy rage:
Caste does 150% damage for four tunes but receives 50% more damage

Frost Orb:
High level spell, bounces from one enemy to another freezing each for two turns and doing massive damage, higher level means more bounces and more damage

Fire Orb:
same as frost orb but instead of freezing the enemies light on fire and take damag over time

Poison Ivy:
Poison Ivy grows out of the ground binding target to where it stand for five turnes and doing mild damage

Vampirism:
Passive, you receive 15% of the physical damage you deal in HP

Disenchant:
Remove all positive buffs from a target

Silence:
Target cannot cast spells for four turns

Evasion:
Passive, enemys have a 15% chance to miss attacks on you

Bloodlust:
Passive, if an enemy is below 30% you gain +30% attack and movement speed

Blinding Light:
All effected enemies miss 50% of their attacks for five turns... after every turn the % goes down by 10

Deathhook:
Target enemy receives medium damage and is pulled in front of the caster

ok that's all for now... if you need any more I can think of some later... oh and naturally all the %s, turns and damage are jus so you get the idea...

[Unsight]

Name: Strong
Description: A faint blue light envelopes the target causing wounds to close and injuries to heal
Effect: Restores < Skill Level > * < Character Level > HP to the target.
Cool Down: One cycle per < Skill Level >.
Special: You may use the skill at a skill level less than or equal to your current maximum.
Cost: One skill point per level.

Name: Angel Wing
Description: Ghostly white feathers begin to swirl around the user and slowly fade away
Effect: All abilities in cool down have their cool down times reduced by < Skill Level >.
Cool Down: Two cycles per < Skill Level >.
Special: You may use the skill at a skill level less than or equal to your current maximum.
Cost: One skill point per level.

[Luinil]

Thanks for the ideas guys, keep them coming!

[Luinil]

hrmm... one month since I touched this... I didn't want to stop, but I wasn't sure where to go from where we were...

I think it was something like I need figure out how to balance everything. It will all be skill based, little to no influence of traditional levels on character growth. Everything was going to be skill based. Skills would be rolled using the d20 system.

Skills would grow or "level" as you acquired either XP by using the skill or accruing XP to acquire Skill Points, essentially every level you get so many Skill Points to invest in your skills, or buy new ones as they become available on the skill tree.

Sorry to Necro this... but I was not finished when I left it, and I couldn't pass up the chance to post again and get me thinking about this again. Maybe something in one of the series we are about to watch will help me think about this a little more with some new ideas... it has happened before.

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