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So yeah - another day another dolla and I am all out of gum or something. Today I want to talk about the game my brain is cooking up. I am just adding in ideas and figuring out something eventually. I have talked about the game I want to play and this is my thoughts into creating something. Will see if the rules work (will post them as I figure it out).
First of all I want the game to be very customizable character/model wise. That is the biggest thing as I feel it needs to allow the modeler to have a full range of creation and movement. You don't always have to do it that way - but it should at least give you the options. The issue with options is that you have to make sure everything works within the game and still provides some kind of balance.
That is the other factor in any game - you need to make sure there is some form of balance. This usually is easier to create if you keep the overall rules small enough but still deep enough to allow for variation. It also helps if you build the game completely at once as we all know adding stuff later can create deep pools of broken crap. So that is another thing we have to think about. Plus a balanced game can create a tactics game that is both fun and still competitive.
So with that out of the way the game idea is some kind of Hero based, party based, tactics driven fight fest. I really want the hero you play to be very important to the army but still let your army function without it. Yeah I know a balancing act that can sound cool as I type it out but not be cool if I play with it. So let's look at some other games that function as hero based games. 40k has the HQ that leads and can activate things but really a lot of the time you don't need the jerk to function. Warmachine is all straight hero based with the death of the Jerk meaning you lose the game as you guys turn off and run away. Magic has super wizards fighting it out over expensive pieces of cardboard. I think all of these have options that I feel could easily be tweaked and changed to create a really cool game. Or so I hope.
The initial thought on the game would just be a rule's shell that you could use any models for. There are a ton of manufacturers out there so any initial thought into creating models etc is thrown out the window as I would rather have a solid rule set that works. I want there to be no Grey Areas as that is one of the most frustrating thing to deal with - people that just want to try and fight the rules and fight you at the same time. I also want to limit some of the luck factor in dice rolling - which usually means using more dice to activate the rules in the game. Rolling one dice is a problem as the averages can be screwed up while rolling two would generate the target average number and allow you to create the targeted system a lot easier. I like how Warmachine does it as you feel most of the time your guys work like they are supposed too. Armor and dodging is mitigated with the rolling and I think it works pretty well. I just wish they had more plastic models haha.
So lets go back to what I am thinking about for whatever I want to call my game - Goatboy's Awesome Haus of Damage!
1 - Hero based - I want the main hero to be customizable, effective, but not make it the end of your game if it kicks it.
2 - I want to mitigate the bad rolling by moving to more dice rolled at a time. Helps create the averages
3 - I want solid core rules that don't leave questions or if they do I can answer them quickly
So that is the basic start. So let's look at a Hero thought.
Hero - King Fancy Pants! He needs some stats as any game is based on numbers so lets look at creating some.
Aim - How they shoot
Melee - How they fight
Resist - How they can survive stuff coming at them - some kind of option to ignore or lessen damage
Health - How much they can take
Armor - How much can be ignored before they take health damage
Move - How fast are you
Simple and easy - a small range of stats means you can utilize Universal Rules to try and create new avenues of game thought. Does it work? Who the hell knows as this is just the brain storm phase. I don't like a lot of stats as I feel it jumbles things up. A lot of things can be combined into one option and allow for a much easier to get the basics rule system. Why does Magic work? It is pretty simple. Simple means more people can jump in and creating the correct avenues for depth is the key to creating a neat game.
So let's look - Aim is the basic thought set to hit things. I am thinking of using 2 dice to represent how you are trying to do something. An average roll on 2 dice is 7 so we want to create things towards this average. We can push the dice up and down based on that and utilize rules for trying to hit something. Let's say something has an amazing dodge ability - add 2 points to your Aim score when trying to hit. Little things like that are easy to add in and can create some dynamic in the game play. We could also use options like stand and aim to add stuff too. Little things like that. So let's say the average to hit roll is a 8. Tough to hit at times but with options you can move it up and down.
Melee - Pretty simple. It is how you hit things when you get mad and want to throw a angry fist dancing party. The options can be the same with Aim and this is just another way to add a stat that isn't the same.
Resist - This one is interesting as you can figure out ways you can ignore special damage. Or have some kind of special option to ignore stuff. When damage is rolled at you. It is just a thought.
Health/Armor - How much donkey punching you can take and how strong your man chest is. Lots of thought on this.
So the first thing is to create a basic and see if the math works as you move around. That is where the move field works and we can go from there. Just basic stuff. Then I can add in the whistles and doodads.
So yeah - these are some basic thoughts. I will write up more as I figure things out. I got an idea for the background, world design that should be neat so will see.
Thoughts? Ideas? Am I dumb for thinking about all of this?