RPGamerzQuest: Guide

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Role Playing Games - Character Guide 1

Introduction: In role playing games, they win through skill and skill alone. No, they don't cause massive damage in a single blow. They can't take hit after hit without faltering. They can't hide in the shadow of a nearby sentry. They are simply, routinely successful. They are more likely than most to hit a foe (as long as it isn't a defender), or dodge a blow (if it doesn't come from an attacker), or spot an ambush (that isn't being initiated by a trickster). These are the achievers of the RPG world, the characters who win simply because they are better at succeeding an action than others.

In QoTR, the achiever is represented by the Aptitude preference. These characters routinely get bonuses on checks, improving their chance of succeeding whatever action they take.

Player Tactics: When you elect to play an achiever, understand both the strengths and weaknesses of the character type. An achiever has a high chance of succeeding any action, but it is not as good at any individual action as a specialist in that style. An achiever can't deal as much damage as an attacker, avoid attacks as effectively as a defender, or sneak as well as a trickster. An achiever minimizes the advantages of enemy specialties and maximizes the impact of their weaknesses. Conversely, the achiever maximizes any other specialties it may have (whatever you are good at, being able to succeed more often only improves the value) and minimizes the impact of those areas it leaves open.

An achiever is not strictly a front-lines fighter. This isn't to say they are weak, but they should not be put into a position that emphasizes immediate and direct confrontation with the foe (unless, of course, they are also skilled attackers!) An achiever works best when it is in a position to gauge its opponent's strengths and weaknesses, so it can capitalize on them. If the opponent is weak against stealth, the achiever might take to the shadows to claim an advantage. If the foe's defenses are poor, the achiever should attack as hard as it can.

On the flip side, the achiever is not necessarily a jack-of-all-trades. In role playing games in general, and definitely in QoTR, most characters are specialized in more than one broad area. If you've got it, flaunt it, as the saying goes. And if you are an achiever, you've got more of it than most. Adding specialization as an achiever compounds the threat of whatever your other specialties are. An attacker or blaster may be scary for their ability to deal phenomenal damage, but when they also have a good chance of hitting so they can deal that damage, they become tremendously dangerous.

Although all combinations have merit, achievers often work best when combined with specializations that rely on succeeding actions. Attackers, defenders, and tricksters who double as achievers maximize the value of both specialties.

GM Tactics: Achievers generally make good choices of opponents in an RPG. They are particularly effective as "elite" foes--not quite "boss" enemies but still ranking above "fodder" opponents. Used wisely, an achiever can put players through a lot of stress while not presenting a tremendous threat of imminent destruction.

An achiever hits often, and is generally difficult to hit. Other specialties aside, they tend to have less impact on any action than most. You probably want to keep numbers roughly even in battles against achievers, since hit after hit will quickly wear a party down, and achievers might have some trouble when faced with large groups--high success chance or not, the dice will roll high eventually! This is a primary reason for using achievers as elite foes, since such opponents tend to fight the characters with similar numbers.

From a game master's standpoint, adding a heavy offensive specialty to an achiever is a dangerous proposition. As always, challenging the players is good, but if the party is wiped out, well, there goes the story! However, adding a defensive specialty to an achiever can create a particularly annoying opponent, and one who (due to its improved ability to hit) poses a credible threat. Other miscellaneous specialties, such as trickster or speedster, also make good combinations for an achiever.

Achievers are the masters of succeeding actions--frequently, reliably, and without significant cost. They may not pack the raw power of other character types, but their skill and versatility allows them to win through either exploitation or attrition. Whatever your other specialty may be, skill as an achiever improves it--a fact that all players should use, but GMs in particular should take to heart as both a promise and a warning.

Dustin Schwerman has been playing RPGs for over a decade, using an analytical approach to critically evaluate the game systems (and so to create the most powerful characters he could get away with). He used the extensive experience gained doing so to create his own game, Quests of the Realm. QoTR focuses on unlimited character customization, relying on its author's understanding to detect and counter game-breaking power plays. Though balanced, QoTR still allows players to create highly effective characters and run them through heroic story lines. To contact Dustin, read more of his writings, or learn more about Quests of the Realm, visit his web site, Quellian-dyrae [http://www.quelliandyrae.com].

Role Playing Games--Character Guide 5

Introduction: Among the most feared of character types in a role playing game is the blaster. Whether a fire-throwing mage, machine-gun-toting soldier, or bomb-launching robot, these characters are respected not only for their ability to do phenomenal damage, but to attack multiple opponents at once. Their powers rarely come without cost, however, and the failure of their attacks is a larger setback for them than the failure of an attacker's stable strikes.

Blasters are the tide-turners of battles, able to attack multiple foes at once for high damage. However, they are not generally as good at attackers at causing solid damage turn after turn. In some games, they are limited in the number of times they can use their powers. In some (such as QoTR), they require extra time or effort to prepare their powerful attacks.

In Quests of the Realm, the blaster is represented by the direct preference.

Player Tactics: When playing a blaster, you should take care to understand your limits. Oftentimes, a large-area attack used in a thick melee will damage your allies as well as your enemies, limiting your effectiveness. If you have a limit to the number of times you can use your high-powered attacks, make sure they count, and be careful if you expect to meet several encounters before getting a chance to recover. If you require extra time or effort to utilize your skills, do what you can to ready your attacks during lulls, before battles, or in other safe periods as allowed by the game.

You don't want to go overboard with a blaster. One way or another, it will likely lead to burn out. Just because you can attack multiple foes doesn't mean you will succeed to hit them all, and there are often abilities available that can counteract an attack for all involved. In QoTR, for example, defenders have an ability called "intervene", which allows them to negate an action in its entirety. A successful intervention, thus, can counter a blaster's powerful attacks for all involved, resulting in wasted energy.

Bear in mind both your damage potential and your ability to attack multiple opponents. Together, these advantages make you the best choice for dealing with large groups of fodder foes. Don't waste extra effort dealing with individual opponents. With a blaster, it is all about getting the most out of every action.

Although all combinations can be effective, a blaster/attacker creates the potential for incredible damage, and also ensures that you have something to fall back on when you can't use your high-powered attacks. A blaster/speedster can get off its attacks faster, which leads to swifter victory but also a higher chance of burnout. Adding a defensive ability to a blaster makes for a fearsome opponent, while a blaster/trickster can wipe out entire enemy forces without even being seen.

GM Tactics: Putting blasters up against the party is always a risk. Since they are such capable damage dealers, and can attack the entire party at once, they are incredibly dangerous opponents. A blaster of roughly equal level to the party, backed up by other opponents, can make for a good challenge. A higher-level boss blaster is a deadly threat, but might not last long enough to be useful, since most parties will concentrate immediate and overwhelming attack to defeat such a foe before it can demolish them. Groups of elite or fodder blasters create a complicated scenario, since everyone has to defend against every attack from the enemy group. Generally speaking, if you want the party to have a good chance of winning, you should keep the number of blasters in any enemy group low.

As mentioned, the best way to use enemy blasters is to join them with other character types. A particularly effective tactic is to get a blaster with strong defenses. There is a good chance that the party will concentrate (and waste) significant effort on that opponent, allowing other foes the opening. If they don't, well, then they risk the power of the blaster's attacks.

In role playing games, blasters are feared for their ability to deal significant damage to multiple foes at once. Players can use blasters to eradicate large groups of fodder foes quickly and deal significant harm to boss opponents. However, overuse of a blaster's capabilities is likely to result in burnout, especially over a prolonged fight or series of fights. Enemy blasters can be devastating to the party, and are best kept to a minimum. In all cases, the ideal way to use blasters is not to try to pour everything they have into maximum-power assaults, but to use their puissant powers with deliberate decisiveness.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Role Playing Games--Character Guide 2

Introduction: Its stats are low, its abilities limited. Why should your character, a mighty warrior skilled in both offensive and defensive arts, fear this foe? You strike with confidence, only for a quick augmentation to increase its defense for the action, blocking your attack. It returns the blow, scoring a solid hit and improving its damage--and adding in one of its most potent special abilities to further augment the effect. Wary now, you ply your own powers to defeat its next two moves, but you can only use these abilities so often. Your opponent, however, confidently continues to activate two or three of its abilities on every attack.

In a role playing game, this sort of character type can be referred to as the "user", a character who can quickly but temporarily improve otherwise low stats and/or activate its powerful abilities very frequently. The user is not a jack of all trades, but a versatility specialist. They may not have all the powers of other specialists, but those they do have they can use nearly as well, and much more often.

In Quests of the Realm, the advantages of the user are reflected in the ARN preference.

Player Tactics: In QoTR, a user--that is, a character with the ARN preference--has two main advantages. They can increase their stats on a by-action basis, and they can use their special preference aspects more often. Other RPGs might have characters that function as users with one or both advantages to varying degrees. Being a user is much less straightforward than being an attacker or defender. The advantages of the user--especially in the area of being able to use special abilities more often--can vary strongly based on the game.

Thus, the first step to effectively playing a user is to understand which advantages your character has, and to what degree. If you have both, you might also want to consider which you plan to use most often, since using one might impact the other. In QoTR, for example, simply activating the action improvement is itself a special ability, and so carries a correspondent cost in and of itself.

If you expect to most frequently use stat improvements, understand that while you can probably face a character so specialized on its own terms, you are unlikely to overpower its advantage. Much like with the achiever described in article one, you are skilled in all arts, and you have a strong advantage over the standard specialist if you specialize as both a user and the other specialty. Unlike with achievers, users are not so much the masters of succeeding actions as being able to improve the value of their actions. Thus, the best way to use stat improvements, much like with an achiever, is to minimize the foe's advantages (as by improving defensive stats against a powerful attacker) and maximize its disadvantages (improving stealth skills against unsubtle foes).

If you prefer the significant ability access, use it but don't get overconfident. A user might be able to utilize its abilities more often, but that does not mean they can do so forever. A user is also more likely to tap its special abilities, which can lead to burnout if they aren't careful. You might also want to consider not overusing your abilities. Use them only as needed, and win through attrition. This is particularly effective if you also have some sort of defensive specialty.

All combinations are valid, and the user specialty combines as well as any, but creating a user/tanker (or better, a user/defender/tanker) creates a character with a very good chance of winning through attrition. Combining user with achiever and/or enhancer creates an incredibly versatile character.

GM Tactics: Users can make very effective opponents thanks to their versatility. Generally, they aren't necessarily the best fodder foes, since they don't tend to get the chance to showcase all of their talents. Also, multiple users in the same battle can make for something of a headache to run. Users, thus, are best utilized as "boss" enemies, and can be particularly effective as recurring villains. Even better, a single opponent of similar power to the characters can make for a very effective user. Such a villain can stress the characters greatly by engaging them when they separate, attacking one at a time and always using tactics that work best against them. Such an opponent should probably make use of a defensive specialty as well, and it certainly wouldn't hurt for it to also be a troubleshooter--particularly, one who can teleport away when the going gets tough.

Users in numbers can be a bit more deadly than you might want, mainly due to the attrition aspect. Such battles promise to be long, grueling, and probably overly complicated, with a reasonable chance that the characters will be slogging away through most of the fight and then be virtually unable to utilize their powers and forced to retreat or fall after an hour or so of difficult fighting. Not the most entertaining scene.

In a role playing game, users are the masters of versatility. Whether they use their powers frequently or boost whatever stat is necessary to the situation, they often seem to always have another trick or tactic to ply. Players can take advantage of this versatility to improve whatever other specialties they possess, or utilize it in its own right to claim an advantage over foes. Villains, too, can find this build advantageous--especially for thoroughly annoying the players!

Role Playing Games--Character Guide 6

Introduction: The majority of role playing games available rely on dice to create a system of random chance. As such, one can never truly predict how things will go. Even an attacker, blaster, or speedster can't guarantee victory before the foe gets a chance to make a crucial attack. Even an achiever, trickster, or defender can't assume that a foe will never succeed to score a hit. Eventually, sometimes even often, characters will take hits. If anything in an RPG is guaranteed, it is this simple fact.

How to deal with it? Play a tanker. Tankers are the characters who take the hits and keep on going. They do not fall easily, do not succumb to single blows. All tankers are alike in their ability to take the hits, but in some games, they also heal rapidly over time, making them virtually impossible to wear down through attrition and compounding their incredible stamina with constant recuperation.

In Quests of the Realm, tankers are represented by the endure preference.

Player Tactics: The tanker, like the defender, is primarily a protective specialty. In QoTR, tankers supplement their stamina with some functional options. They can sacrifice their resilience to improve their actions, and can ignore some of the penalties that come from being badly injured (and, indeed, gain bonuses instead!) This isn't always the case, however, and being able to take a lot doesn't matter much if you can't likewise dish it out.

The tanker, thus, is a specialty that helps to maximize other advantages more than granting benefits of its own. Since a tanker doesn't fall easily, it has more chances to make use of its abilities. When other characters are falling back to get healing, the tanker is still going strong, possibly even stronger than it was in the beginning of the fight.

A tanker should never go for minimal impact. Do whatever you can to pester your enemies so they turn their attention onto you. As with a defender, your value to the party, other specialties aside, is strongly limited if foes elect not to attack you. On the other hand, don't let the value of your strength defeat itself. Tankers are hard to take down--but not impossible. You want to draw attacks off of your allies, but much as with a user, if you rely too heavily on your ability to resist hard, it will be used up when you need it later.

Although any combination can prove effective, tankers do lend themselves to certain other specialties. A user/tanker, used wisely, is a master of winning through attrition. A blaster/tanker might risk a high chance of burnout, but played with some caution, can devastate the enemy force without fearing being taken down quickly due to the perceived threat of blasters. An enhancer/tanker, able to take the hits and heal, is virtually immortal on the field, while a defender/tanker is not only hard to hit, but also requires more hits to drop (and may be able to lower the damage of those hits it takes, to boot).

GM Tactics: Tankers share many of the same advantages of defenders for villain design. They make great boss opponents, especially if a lot of the players have high-damage characters that would otherwise eradicate a boss in one or two hits. If tankers can gain in effectiveness as they are injured (as in QoTR), the challenge of such a battle increases as the characters get closer to winning, not unlike in some video game RPGs.

Attacker/tanker fodder opponents are a pretty safe bet. Since they are lower level than the party, their ability to take more hits and deal more harm make them credible threats. And, since their tactics are straightforward, the GM can use them without having to worry about complicated strategy. As with defenders, though, tanker fodder can mean a much longer battle. On the flip side, they're a great choice if the party contains a slightly-too-effective blaster.

Tanker elites can prove effective, especially if combined with more powerful allies. A trickster/achiever boss, for example, with a couple of tanker elites can make for an interesting challenge. All in all, the tanker specialty is among the best choice for villains--it makes them effective without making them unnecessarily devastating, and nicely complements any other specialty they have.

Tankers can take the hits and keep on fighting. They lack powerful offensive abilities of their own, but if they have a halfway decent fighting specialty to back them up, they can win their fights through attrition. Players should value the added survivability of tankers, since a player's character is naturally subject to more attacks--and more successful attacks--over the course of a long-running game than any individual villain. However, enemies too can benefit from a tanker's capabilities, allowing them to actually stay in the fight long enough to cause an effect, even against a group of high-damage characters.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Role Playing Games--Character Guide 3

Introduction: Ah the attacker. How can one go wrong? Truly, this is the specialty that needs no introduction, but we'll give it one anyway. In a role playing game, the attackers are the solid, effective damage dealers. Whether through their high chance of successfully hitting, their ability to inflict severe injury, or their capability at causing debilitating status damage, attackers master the art of taking their opponents down. Solid and dependable, attackers don't need a variety of tricks and tactics. Give them their weapons, point them at their opponents, and watch the combat end.

For purposes of this article, attackers can include any and all of the following: a character who has a reliable chance of hitting in combat; a character who deals significant damage; or a character who can weaken opponents with status effects. An attacker, however, should not be confused with an achiever (who has a high chance of succeeding any action, not just attacks) or a blaster (who deals massive damage to multiple opponents). Generally speaking, an attacker can attack only a few foes, typically one, on any given turn. Attackers also are able to attack without cost; they don't usually have major limitations on how often they can utilize most of their abilities.

In Quests of the Realm, attackers are represented, logically enough, by the attack preference.

Player Tactics: Obviously, if you are playing an attacker, your tactic is to attack. It helps, however, to determine just what style of attacking you prefer. In QoTR, you can decide this on the fly in battle if you want, varying your tactics. Depending on the game you play, the type of character and abilities you choose may limit your options.

If you plan to go for damage power over accuracy, you might not get many hits in, but those you do achieve will be decisive. This can be a weakness against defenders, who take your already low chance of hitting and further reduce it. If you favor hitting often, don't expect to turn the tide with a single move; you need some time to wear your foe down. This, then, is of less use against tankers, who can take more of your hits. If you favor status effects over direct "hit point" style damage, your attacks are better at directly weakening a foe in combat, but not strictly better at wearing them down. The effectiveness generally varies depending on how your game handles status effects, but generally speaking, it is easier to deal damage than to blind, stun, or confuse a foe.

All combinations have merit, and an attacker certainly compliments any other specialty in a combat-oriented game. Attacker/defenders or attacker/tankers have both offense and defense covered. If you favor direct damage, being an attacker/blaster might suit you well. On the flip side, if you like a high chance of hitting, you might prefer attacker/achiever. Generally speaking, an attacker/user might be better able to inflict status effects than others, while an attacker/enhancer is good at weakening foes while augmenting allies, which can make for an interesting combination.

GM Tactics: Attackers are good at dealing damage, which makes them deadly. If you put your players up against a boss-level attacker, you are putting their characters at significant risk of death. Although some groups prefer a "take us to the edge" style of play, the focus of these articles for a GM is to help challenge the players while maintaining a respectable chance that their characters will survive the encounter.

That in mind, attackers are best used as fodder foes--that is to say, opponents who are individually weaker than the main characters, and tend to fight in numbers. The numerical advantage indicates that despite their lesser power, these opponents will probably score a hit eventually. As attackers, they can deal respectable harm even to higher-level foes, making them into credible threats. A couple elite-level attackers focused on status effects helping out a boss can strongly intensify the challenge of a climactic battle, though you may want to tone the boss down some. If you wish to use a boss attacker, you might go for a character who hits often at the expense of pure damage power. This maintains the attacker's threat and helps get around pesky defenders, but also gives characters a chance to retreat, heal, or overwhelm the foe through numbers.

Attackers are front-lines fighters, plain and simple. They don't need tricks and tactics, but that doesn't mean they can't use them, and it certainly doesn't mean that all attackers are alike. By choosing your preferred attack style and selecting specialties that compliment it, you can create a highly customized warrior. This variety can also help wise QLs use offensively-oriented foes to threaten the players without putting them at excessive risk of character death.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Role Playing Games--Character Guide 4

Introduction: Being able to cause massive damage is well and good, but it's a useless ability in either of the following cases: you can't hit your foe, or you've already been dropped. In the world of role playing games, these simple facts explain the existence of defenders, characters who don't rely on massive damage power to win the day, but get through their battles by outlasting their opponents. Defenders prefer to wear their foes down over time, and since they avoid most attacks against them, they are in a perfect position to do just that.

There are two primary possibilities for defenders, either or both of which might be represented in a given game's defense-oriented characters. The first involves simply avoiding attacks, causing them to fail utterly. The second involves lessening the impact of those attacks that succeed. Obviously, the best defenders are those who are able to do both.

In Quests of the Realm, defenders are represented, as one would hope, by the defend preference.

Player Tactics: The style of game can have a strong effect on the value of playing a defender. You may wish to set your sights elsewhere in some cases, because unless they have some decent secondary advantages or methods of using their abilities, defenders can be boring to play. Not only do you lack impressive offenses, but smart foes will identify defenders and avoid attacking them. Now, on one hand, this only makes you better at doing what you do best: avoiding getting hit. On the other hand, your big value to the party is to draw off enemy attacks, and if your foes don't bother attacking you, you're useless. Worse still, just because you can often avoid attacks doesn't mean you always will. If your attacks are so weak that you find it as hard to appreciably hurt your foes and they find you, you don't have any advantage at all in single combat.

In QoTR, defenders have abilities allowing them to defend their allies, thus foiling foes regardless of who they attack. QoTR defenders also have abilities that allow them to turn a foe's botched attacks to their own advantage, typically by giving them an opening to improve their next attack. If you are playing another RPG, you might want to see if you can find a character who has such abilities before you dedicate yourself to playing a defender.

On the other hand, if characters in your game tend to have multiple specialties, adding defense might be viable regardless of specialty tactics. The fact of the matter is, no matter what your other skills are, adding defense helps you stay alive, so it is always welcome. The only time you want to be careful is when considering an all-out defensive character.

On the subject of combinations, any choice can work fine, but some that stand out are attacker/defender (or blaster/defender), tanker/defender, and achiever/defender. The attacker/defender adds good damage to strong defenses, which makes for a foe both hard to kill and quite capable of killing your opponents. A tanker/defender adds phenomenal endurance to high ability to avoid hits, exponentially improving both advantages. The achiever/defender is good at avoiding attacks and good at succeeding actions (such as defenses), for a layered benefit. Such characters also have at least functional attacks to fall back on.

GM Tactics: Defenders make great boss opponents. An RPG boss, generally speaking, is outnumbered by the characters, but more individually powerful than each one. Having a defense specialization allows it to better handle the threat of multiple foes, while its naturally higher stats can still serve as offensively effective. Such an opponent can be quite stressful to players, since they get many turns but still don't seem to be causing any effect. Even if the villain isn't making much real headway itself, the sheer number of misses the characters get can make it seem much more formidable than it actually is.

Elite opponents can also benefit from a defensive specialization. A particularly effective tactic is to have a couple skilled defenders backing up more offensively-minded opponents. While the focus of these articles is always on challenging the players without putting their characters at overwhelming risk, if you are in the market for a truly dangerous battle, an attacker or blaster boss with a couple elite defender minions (provided those defenders can somehow protect the boss) makes a devastating team.

You may wish to shy away from defender fodder foes. Giving fodder opponents high defenses basically means a long, grueling, and potentially embarrassing battle. Fodder opponents are never much expected to seriously threaten the characters, but it's nice for them to have at least a degree of impact. As defenders, they just get in the way and stay there for longer.

Defenders are skilled at avoiding attacks. They have good survivability, but without other specialties, can be limited in their actual impact on combat. Consider the advantages the defenders of your game have access to. All-out defenders might have really strong survivability, but can be boring to play if all they can do is dodge really well. For players, the best defenders are those that can protect their allies. For GMs, defenders are effective ways at making a battle seem much harder than it actually is--which can be good or bad, depending on what you want the encounter to accomplish.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Role Playing Games - Builder's Guide 10

The Challenge: Over the past nine articles, you've seen many challenges in creating a balanced, versatile, and entertaining role playing game. Balancing character design and die rolls, offering opportunities to strategic, descriptive, and casual players alike. All of these challenges relate, in one way or another, to game balance. Keeping an RPG balanced, making sure that no character has an overwhelming advantage, is so important and integral to all of these challenges that it a single article cannot encompass the entirety of its effects on the game.

But balance is not the final word. This is a role playing game, an interactive story. Challenges and combat are important factors. But challenges are there for characters to overcome, and battles there to win. The characters should face risk, but if they fight smart, help each other out, and have a modicum of good luck, players should generally expect that they could carry the day--sometimes, even against a superior opposition.

Thus the tenth and final challenge of designing a versatile and balanced role playing game. Thus the aspect of the game perhaps more important than any--even balance--in the minds of those who will be running their characters through the game world: the challenge of maintaining heroism.

When people play an RPG, they expect their characters to face serious, even epic dangers. They expect that the challenges they face will be difficult, that sometimes they will fail, that the dice won't always smile. They expect that the game master will pit them against foes that do not fall to single sword swings or fireballs, and those who threaten their characters' lives in a very direct manner. And they expect that despite this, they will have a better-than-average chance of winning.

However, the level of heroism is not something the game designer can truly control. Certainly, the designer must make sure that players have a good chance of succeeding at actions, that they have a shot at beating foes of reasonably higher levels of power, that weaker foes can be threatening, but are not entirely likely (barring incredible luck or foolish tactics on the players' parts) of taking down these superior warriors. However, this article is directed less at those who design the role playing game than those who design the game. This is for the game masters, the referees, the quest lords, and any other title or acronym that goes into naming the player who runs the story, controls the secondary characters, and presents the challenges for the characters to overcome.

The Risk: The risk you take lies in the design of your game and the opposition you place your characters up against. You have control of the game world. It is technically possible for you to go and throw a thirtieth level dragon up against a group of fifth-level adventurers. Thereafter, your fellow players will generally choose a new game master, but it can be done.

This sort of encounter, however, is no fun. Likewise, it is not worth much when a party of 30th-level characters take on 5th-level soldiers. Sure, it might be fun every so often, giving the players the chance to show off their skills and reinforcing their level of power before you throw them back into the balanced world of even-level opponents, but it doesn't make for a good long-term game.

In addition to enemy levels, you should consider the risk of enemy tactics and design. Massive damage dealers may be scary, and throwing them in every now and then can certainly rattle players, but such opponents are much more likely to take the entire party down--and do so fatally, rather than just dropping them. You want to maintain risk, of course, every bit as much as the game designer. However, if every fight carries a large-scale chance of character death, the game is probably going to be rather short. Most game masters put a lot of thought into developing an entertaining story line--it would be a shame for the game to end during the introduction!

You may also want to consider things from a realistic standpoint. Generally speaking, in a fight, people care first about staying alive, second about winning. Perhaps when everyone is wounded the enemy mage does have a good chance of wiping out half the party--but is it worth the mage's own life to do so? Most wise warriors would rather live to fight another day than sell their own lives to score kills. Not all, of course, but many. So too, many fighters would rather focus on their defenses than go for attack after attack, waiting for an opening to strike rather than offering such to their opponents.

The Solution: The trick is, when you design a battle, make it tough without being excessively deadly. This isn't to say to never go for strong attacks--if the players just aren't getting it together, the opposition is not going to hold back forever!--but don't make them the focus of every battle. It is possible--sometimes even easy--to show players a hard fight without threatening them with immediate death.

Defense-oriented opponents are usually very annoying to players, and sometimes even scarier than attack-oriented foes, in their own ways. An attacker might cause massive harm, but if you take it out quick, it's not that powerful. Defenders, however, evade and accept attacks with ease. Well-used, and a defense-oriented opponent, especially a major villain, can make players feel nearly impotent, increasing the perceived threat of the battle even though the villain isn't scoring any hits either.

Fodder opponents can also benefit from defense-oriented stats, especially those that allow them to take more hits. These foes aren't expected to actually win, but the longer they last, the more opportunity they have to wear the characters down.

A defender with solid--but not excessive--offensive power is a stressful opponent to face. Not only do the players have trouble dealing solid damage, but this sort of opponent is actually having an effect. This is a good template for an elite but not primary foe. The main villain's personal guards, for example.

If you do use attackers, consider strikes that weaken and inhibit rather than those that damage and slay outright. This escalates the danger of the battle without necessarily pushing the characters over the edge. Putting one of these types in with other opponents, such as some tanks to absorb punishment, can do much to make a fight seem harder than it might actually be.

Stealthy foes, if used properly, can hassle players. Stealth/speed type opponents can really get players nervous, as such foes can conceal themselves and attack quickly enough that players might think they are facing a much larger group than they really are.

A balanced game makes a game master's job easier, but the game designer's hard work goes to waste if you don't allow characters their chance to shine--while keeping them from getting overconfident. Don't coddle the players, but don't feel as if every battle must be a grueling test of their resilience. Wise enemy design can make players feel as if the battle is much riskier than it actually is, keeping the game fun and challenging without threatening to end the entire story in a single encounter.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Role Playing Games - Builder's Guide 5

The Challenge: A role playing game should be versatile. It should allow various different types of characters, all of whom can interact effectively with each other. However, game balance alone is not the only difficulty when making a versatile game. The fifth challenge of creating an RPG comes into play: the challenge of game consistency.

Although players like variety, the point of having a role playing game system at all is to impose some degree of functionality to the game rules. Available abilities, what level of power the characters have to be to do certain things, and so on. This is game consistency, the ability for players who understand the basic rules to generally predict how individual rules will interact with the game as a whole.

An RPG displays its consistency in a number of ways. Character power is chief among them. Although one might say that any foe can be dangerous, a character who can reliably take on an adult dragon should not have to fear a street urchin with a knife in anything that even vaguely resembles a fair fight. A character who can spot the rare and subtle mistakes of a master assassin should have little difficulty locating a scared child hiding beneath a table. Extenuating circumstances might apply--if the warrior is sleeping or the scout isn't even paying attention to its surroundings, for example--but generally speaking, characters of a given level of power should always possess the advantages of that level.

The basic game rules and rules for character design are also important. If the monsters and villains have different design rules than the characters, it leads to inconsistency. An individual group might purposefully limit character options based on genre or level of power (you simply cannot play an ancient dragon if the story is for low-level adventurers). However, this is the group's prerogative. If the game applies the limits for them, it inhibits both variety and consistency, because now the game either shortchanges or overpowers the players' characters in comparison to the opponents they will encounter.

The Risk: An inconsistent game runs a greater than normal risk of being an imbalanced game. The same rules should apply in all situations. If they don't, it creates a loophole to exploit. You might think that offering lower-power characters certain advantages (beginner's luck, maybe) over much stronger foes, but all this does is cheapens the value of character power and compromises the consistency of the game. If characters of different levels of skill exist in your RPG, they should have all due advantages over less adept individuals.

An inconsistent game also prevents the players from fully understanding the game rules as an overview. They have to learn every single detail to prepare themselves effectively for a game. Sure, this level of preparation is laudable and often tactically valuable in any case, but it should not be a requirement. A role playing game remains just that--a game. The moment it becomes more work than fun, it ceases to be successful, no matter how versatile or balanced it may be.

An inconsistent RPG often makes players feel like they don't actually have any control over the flow of the story, always a bad thing. As was noted in a previous article, if players wanted to passively watch a story unfold around them, they could read a book or watch a movie. Inconsistency limits the player's ability to make rational choices, because there may always be some other rule or modification that throws them off. This example may hold true only in extreme cases of inconsistency, but remains an important point to note.

Inconsistency doesn't always weaken players, though. It also threatens balance by creating loopholes. In an inconsistent RPG, certain things follow different rules, and some of those rules are probably more or less beneficial than other ones. A cunning player will notice these options, and learn how to exploit as many as possible to create a much more powerful character than the game intends.

The Solution: The reason that I continue to use the preference system for QoTR is because it solves so many of these challenges in and of itself. If all characters, player and referee alike, follow the same rules for character design, have the same availability of abilities, and get the same benefits and limitations from their choices then the game maintains consistency.

The preference system not only helps consistency by keeping the rules working the same, but also by allowing players to choose their abilities regardless of character type. A mage can be stealthy and resistant to damage--necromancers, nature mages, and earth/air elementalists would all fit easily into that category. A warrior can attack multiple foes at once using swift weapon katas. A rogue can heal using pilfered devices or herbal potions brewed with the same knowledge that it uses to create lethal poisons. In this way, consistency actually improves variety, rather than opposing it.

Game consistency allows players to get the most out of a role playing game by understanding all the rules, and being able to utilize them effectively. An inconsistent game runs the risk of overpowering or shortchanging players due to loopholes and unexpected rules. By using the same rules for all characters, the game maintains consistency and can even offer improved variety, without sacrificing game balance.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Role Playing Games - Builder's Guide 2

The Challenge: The term is role playing game, not roll playing game. As one can deduce, then, a large part of what makes these sorts of games different from others is that the players are taking on the roles of others. In an RPG, each player has a character that it plays the role of. Although a large part of character design lies in stats--the character's ability to solve challenges in the game world--the very name of the game genre indicates that at least as important are the specifics of the character. Thus we have the second challenge in creating a balanced role playing game: the challenge of character detail.

This is to say, to get the most out of any role playing game, players have to be able to know who their characters are as much as what they can do. Physical appearance. Personality. History. Nature. These are all aspects of the character that the player can choose to help make his or her character more real.

But there is more to it than that. What happens when the character uses its abilities? Does it wield paired swords in a complex series of katas? Does it work long-forgotten spells it picked out of musty tomes? Does it utilize incredibly advanced alien technology?

Detail also plays a role in stats. How great is the warrior's strength, the wizard's knowledge, the cleric's insight, or the rogue's wisdom? What about the alien's will, the robot's items, or the pilot's accuracy? How much can the barbarian lift? How far can the psychic teleport? How many soldiers make up the warlord's army?

A role playing game that focuses only on the combat stats and abilities is leaving out much of what it means to be an RPG. Some might say that these things should be the player's to decide. Well, yes, every bit as much as a player should be able to decide its skills and powers. However, this does not mean the player has free reign over every little detail. These things can matter in the game world. The designer, then, must take them into account and establish a firm base of rules for them.

The Risk: A slipshod job of details can lead to significant delays during the game as players try to figure out exactly what their characters can do. Sometimes it is important--even critically important--to know if your character can climb a certain wall, figure out a bit of lore, or teleport a given distance. If the referee of the game has to handle all these questions with ad hoc rulings, it will create an inconsistent world, which weakens the game.

However, it is also important not to put too much into your miscellaneous rules. This leads to complicated referencing for every action a character might need to take, and may also cause contradictory rules. Also, you want to avoid situations where it takes a long time to build every character. Some players may like to spend hours thinking about every little skill and ability their characters possess. Others do not.

The Solution: In QoTR, I found that the best way to go was with a rules base that can be easily applied to any situation, and that dovetails with the core creation process. I didn't want to add extra steps to character creation unless they could be in a sense optional. The result is a broad-based system that can fit into a variety of situations, but relies on generally the same core rules for each, much as with the combat rules. It also opens up a number of possibilities for future supplements.

I use three main systems to classify details. For most of the truly miscellaneous details, there is a simple rule: describe your character how you want, provided it reflects your stats. Just because a player describes its character a certain way does not mean the character gets any advantages (or suffers any penalties, for that matter). So if a player makes a thirty-foot-tall, heavily muscled giant with a greatsword, for example, it had better select some offensive abilities.

For most non-combat actions, I use a system of attributes. Each preference (a group of related abilities) has two attributes tied to it, which the player can switch on character creation. The character's attributes determine how effectively it handles non-combat challenges. This system allows for precise character details, but doesn't require that the player spend extra time on attributes if it does not wish to, since it can just leave them tied to their nominal abilities.

However, most role playing games offer more than mere attributes and imaginative details. Special powers such as flight, telepathy, and water breathing are all common in many role playing game genres. QoTR uses a system of special ability groups much like (and tied to) preferences, with an ability point system for customization if the player doesn't want to use the default selection. These abilities are broad-based, like much of the QoTR system, so players can tweak or fit them to any character type or genre.

Non-combat actions are an important part of role playing games, and no RPG is truly complete unless players are able to describe their characters. Any RPG designer would do well to focus intently on this part of the game design process. The best tactic I have found is to design a system detailed enough to cover any situation, but simple enough that it won't bog down the game.

Role Playing Games - Builder's Guide 4

The Challenge: An important challenge in creating a role playing game--and one prone to be overlooked--is the challenge of game variety. Many role playing games are genre-specific, their rules geared to only a certain game style. Indeed, some RPGs specify more than just genre. The game world, story line, even play style are all used as factors in game design.

Not all RPGs worry excessively about this. Many use a specific game world or story line setting to benefit from brand loyalty and recognizable realms and characters. However, the more variety the game makes available, the greater the game's potential to draw in players.

In any case, particularly specific role playing games fit their niches well enough. The designers who truly have to worry about the fourth challenge are those who intend to create a reasonably broad RPG. The fact is that role players demand variety. Browse the web sites (or even the banner ads!) of a few on-line role playing games, and you will quickly find that one of the most common selling points is the number (and, sometimes, unpredictability) of the character types they offer. Role players enjoy having a lot of character types to choose from. A fantasy game that only has fighters, wizards, clerics, and rogues won't cut it, as won't a sci-fi game where the only choices are astronaut, robot, and alien.

Crossovers are also becoming popular in some groups. There are plenty of players out there who would much prefer a game where robots and aliens can fight alongside fighters and wizards. And if there is a superhero or two in the group, so much the better!

But for a game to provide such options, it must be versatile. The RPG has to be able to support not only the vast (infinite?) number of character types that imaginative players might think of within a single genre, but if you want to cater to crossover players, also to the possible character types from other genres. And you have to do so while maintaining the first three challenges, and the six that will be provided afterwards.

The Risk: So now you know why it is good to make for a game with variety. So let's say you intend to do so, going all-out with any genre possible. Good!

Here's the problem.

You immediately find friction between this challenge and the third challenge, character value. Technological development insists that a sword is a better weapon than a club, a gun better than a sword, and a laser rifle better than a gun. So how are you supposed to maintain character value between a party that consists of a cave man, a medieval knight, a modern soldier, and a futuristic robot?

You also need a solid and balanced way for forces from opposed genres to interact. Consider magic, superhero powers, technology (both modern and futuristic separately, of course), psychic abilities (possibly differentiating between aliens, gifted modern humans, and mind-crafting mages), and simple physical prowess, to name just a few broad groups of abilities. Can you reliably say that any of them trumps the others? If so, you are shattering character value. Do they interact at all? If not, there is no way for such characters to defend themselves against one another, turning any cross-genre encounters into "who goes first" tests. Perhaps certain powers interact in superior fashions, each having ways to counter others? Too complicated, with too much emphasis on certain abilities. Players wind up locked into a multi-genre arms race rather than able to play the characters they want to play, which simply counters the point.

You could have each sort of ability working in a different way, but again, the complexity is there. In that case, it's almost like you're creating a different role playing game for each genre, and collecting them all into an anthology. This naturally leads to too many supplements, and a feeling that players have to buy them all to keep up to date. Good for business, bad for players, and very bad for attracting new players to a new RPG, where there is no brand loyalty getting them to buy even the core book, let alone supplements.

And, of course, there is the problem of interacting abilities within a single character. What happens when a robot learns magic or a cave man develops psychic powers? How about a superhero wielding an enchanted greatsword in one hand, an antimatter rifle in the other, and a wand of fireballs telekinetically? Players want to have access to such character types. They have to be taken into account.

The problem is that the more rules you have for describing different abilities, the more likely it is for those rules to interact in a critically unbalancing way. Next thing you know, characters have gotten around every limit you place on each genre, and used cross-genre abilities to improve their power more in a multiplicative fashion than an additive one. Variety is what players want, and it is the hardest thing to give them without breaking the system.

The Solution: As I noted in previous articles, the core rules for QoTR rely on a selection of broad ability types, each with lists of advantages that a character specializing in the ability can gain. Unlike many role playing games, the actual abilities the character has and the player's description of its abilities are not tied together save for to assert that the description must emulate the stats. Of the various systems I have tried, I found this to be the best option for allowing unlimited description, versatile stats, and balanced character value.

Put simply, a swordsman who specializes in attacking and defending is no better or worse than a robot, modern soldier, or caveman of the same level who specializes to the same degree. Discounting specifically chosen penalties, they all have access to the same abilities and have the same stats. Their descriptions, however (and possibly the abilities that they use most frequently), will vary widely.

There is the potential for some glitches in realism using the system, but realism is actually little more than a sub-genre in and of itself. Some RPGs make a terrible mistake of assuming that players wish to play a realistic game. In QoTR, I handle realism by putting it in the player's hands. If you want to play a realistic game, build and use your character realistically. The game rules allow plenty of leeway for character design, so players should suffer no real penalty for electing to limit their actions to realistic levels. There are options for unexploitable hindrances (yes, unexploitable) that players who wish to realistically limit their actions can use to get higher stats in other areas or other bonuses. Also, many abilities have a cost to use anyway; ignoring two abilities only gives you two more uses of the ability you really like.

Variety is one of the most important aspects of a role playing game, and also one of the most difficult to properly use. Assumptions and excessive detail can lead to imbalances that only squelch the opportunity to use the versatility offered to its fullest extent. To best encourage variety, design a system that allows players to build characters they way they wish to play them, and forces them to play their characters the way they built them.

Role Playing Games -- Builder's Guide 1

The Challenge: Character ability is the first thing that any role playing game designer should consider, and in many ways the most important. Fortunately, it is also generally the easiest to perfect in and of itself. The challenge of character ability comes from the need for a variety of character types, each with their own unique capabilities.

There are a number of possibilities for solving this challenge, each of which is generally viable. Perhaps the most common one is the set "character type" role playing game. Using this system, all players choose what sort of being their characters are from a list of possibilities. This style of RPG is often broken down into two or three lists from which the player makes one (or sometimes multiple) choices. Perhaps the most common example of this style is where the player chooses a certain type of being and a certain profession that suits the game's theme. The choices made, and the character's level of power, determine what the character can do.

Certain designers prefer a skills-based role playing game. Using this style, players have a number of points or other units of measurement, which they can spend on certain abilities, powers, attributes, skills, or other advantages. This style offers more flexibility than the previous type of RPG, at the expense of more work on the player's part.

Another possibility is the ability list role playing game. This style is somewhat similar to the skills style in that players choose from certain abilities to build their character. The difference is that instead of selecting from certain abilities, players select lists of skills, gaining all abilities appropriate to their character's level found on their chosen lists.

Combinations of the three are common, often using one system as the base with another for certain parts. For instance, a role playing game might use a character type system to determine which skills or lists the character can select from. Alternately, an RPG might use an ability list style, but also have points to choose which abilities within those lists the player can select from.

Other combinations are possible, as are other styles of design, although these three make good overall categories. Each has its merits, but likewise, each comes with potential disadvantages.

The Risk: Although character ability is not a difficult challenge to meet, the style a role playing game designer uses here will affect every other challenge in the RPG-making process. Characters are the most important part of any role playing game, as they represent the medium that the players use to interact with the game itself.

The rules for creating characters are the most important when concerning issues of game balance. If characters are too powerful, the game is not challenging and thus less fun. If the characters are too weak, the game is overly difficult, and likewise less fun. But perhaps the most important consideration is the worry that certain character options will be more or less powerful than others. This prevents players from fully enjoying the sorts of characters they wish to play.

Future articles give more detail on the concepts of balance and character value in a role playing game. For now, bear in mind the pitfalls of each of the above three primary styles.

The character type system is the least versatile of the styles, as players have less option to mix and match their abilities. However, it can be the most balanced, as you know exactly what each character type can do. This is one of the fundamental rules of RPG creation; the more choices the player can make, the more likely it is that the rules will interact in an unforeseen way to give that player an undue advantage or disadvantage.

The skills system is the most versatile option, and as such, carries the most risk for balance. Players using this system not only have full creative control, there need not be any specific rhyme or reason to the choices of abilities. Combinations that might otherwise be impossible might very well become common. Even if the designer balances all of the abilities individually, the skills system, especially at its most versatile, offers the most potential for unforeseen imbalances.

The ability list system holds to an average point, which in many ways gives it the both the advantages and disadvantages of both RPG systems. The list system, especially depending on the number of lists available, offers the potential for unforeseen combinations. Importantly, just because players purchase entire lists of abilities does not mean that the potential combinations of individual abilities cannot become overpowering. The list system does tone down on combining only the most powerful of abilities, though, and also tends to lessen the actual number of choices a player can effectively make.

The Solution: In the role playing game I created, Quests of the Realm, I use a system balanced somewhere between the abilities and the skills system. Players have a number of points to devote to ten different lists of abilities, with the points spent and their level determining which abilities from the list they get. Players cannot select individual abilities from a certain list, but must pay all requisite costs to get to the higher-level abilities of each list. Generally speaking, a player can specialize in three or maybe four of the ten lists. There are also certain aspects of creation that use a more standard skill system, which generally have limited effect on combat (where stats are most important).

To make this system work, I use a number of tactics to minimize the disadvantages of my chosen styles. One of the weaknesses of the list system is that it might limit creative control some. To solve this, I keep the lists broad in scope. For instance, there isn't a list for weapon skills, magic, psychic powers, and so on. There is a list for attacking, defending, stealth, and the like. It is a strict rule in QoTR that the description of a character's abilities must reflect the character's stats, but do not affect them. A mage is not necessarily better at dealing massive damage to multiple foes than a warrior, although certainly a warrior who chooses to be strong in such a field is going out of the box for its archetype.

Using this rule, players may create any sort of character they wish, without fear of limiting their stats. A mage does not have to be a frail, defenseless pushover once you get past its spells. A rogue does not have to be unable to hold its own in a stand-up fight. And so on.

However, by the same token, players get no free abilities for choosing a certain type of character to play. A mage who doesn't choose the ability list that allows it to deal massive harm to multiple foes cannot throw the gloriously large fireballs that are some common to that archetype. It uses its magic in other ways.

To help tone down potentially game-breaking power plays, I made use of two balancing factors. The first is the advancement system. Character advancement occurs at a rate based on the actual difficulty of the encounter. This is to say, you might be fighting a foe ten levels higher than you, but if you take it down in your first move without suffering a single hit, you don't get very far where advancement is concerned. The problem with power playing is not creating a character that can defeat powerful foes. If that were the case, the person running the game could just throw in stronger opponents, maintaining the challenge and solving the problem. However, in many role playing games, comparative level of power determines advancement. Using this style, stronger opponents only hasten the growth of character power, which compounds the problem.

My second tactic is simple: if all of the abilities are powerful, and all characters (main characters and opponents alike) have the same options for character building, no one can claim an undue advantage. I don't see a value in limiting the efficacy of character abilities. Most role playing games have something of an epic or heroic feel, so why not let the characters be epic and heroic? And if you prefer games where the characters are outmatched, it's easy enough to use opponents several levels higher than they are to handle things.

A role playing game designer's most important choice may be the abilities it allows characters in the game to possess. Do not fall into the trap of limiting characters to only a few possibilities so overburdened by limits that they cannot function. Separating stats from description, making the players work to earn their levels, and making sure that every ability has its uses are three excellent tactics to keep an RPG customizable without compromising its balance.