Making a Pen & Paper RPG: Could use some ideas
 

I've been flirting with a couple of ideas for a long time. Have been playing P&P RPG's since i was 8, and for most of that time having to rely either on self-made systems or D&D with a bunch of house rules, i kinda grew this liking for making core rules.

I can easily put together a 60+ manual of just rules for about any setting, and the games i usually make are usually built with a campaign in mind (i've told that they resemble more P&P MMORPG's with less grinding and more questing)

On the last few months i had these ideas that i fell really strong about but i just can't get my ahead around on how to actually pass them to a playable form.

The first one is around a Job System. The same one we get on Final Fantasy and the such. I love when the players actually get to customize their characters just the way they want. The problem is that i wanted to do something that was easy to get into and wouldn't need much upkeep from the player (as in, you shouldn't have to carry around a small book just so you can keep track of all your jobs and how they change your character sheet) Also, balance is a big issue.

The second one, funny enough, has a way for me to show it to you thanks to a recent Penny Arcade post.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/uploads/.../04/fall_0.jpg

I just love Giant Robots. And There are 3 Things i'm crazy about in that Genre: Gundam, Macross and Front Mission. I always wanted a way to combine their concepts in a fun RPG. And now i see this, which seems to be a pretty easy and cheap way to make it possible, anyone can make one of these in their garage, and that is a big plus for me.

The idea, once again, is that your Mech is as customizable as Any character you could build on other RPG's. But all encounters would take place in a "3d map" such as this.

The idea here would be to create a system were the player has a large array of customization options to apply to a Tactical system. in a map such as this one in the photo, you would have 4 levels being from top to bottom:

1- Orbital altitude
2- Flight altitude
3- Ground
4- Below ground (Underground or Underwater)

There would be a set space between levels (let's say if you go up or down 5 squares you change levels) and the last 2 rows of each level are actually projections. So, for example, a character in the last row on any level would be considered to be actually 10 squares away and a characters in the penultimate row would be 5 squares away from unites in the normal areas of that level.

And you can move freely between those panels and attack normally if within range. And your mech type and weapons have bonus and penalties applied depending on where you are and where you're going/attacking.

The main reason for this thread is that i would really appreciate if you guys could help me brainstorm this. What should i look into to make this more fun, accessible and challenging? Any ideas of ways i could combine both ideas above?

Brainstorm with me here people!

I'd like to review your actual system.

Visuals are always nice. You could have some pictures of clouds or earth or whatever under your transparent panels. Maybe some props for mountains or water on the 'ground' level.

Actually that would be difficult, i never really wrote any RPG material in English =/

However, there are 3 elements that i add on every system i built. They usually worked great for my group and fit well with old players and new players.

The first is the Main system. That's made of HP, EP, DR

HP - is your normal Hit points. When they reach 0 you are out of battle

EP - It's your "Energy Points" (think of them as Mana) they are the fuel to any sort of magical or special ability that you can learn or use.

DR - That's damage reduction. It's like a second HP bar, except that it's built from your armor, natural resistance and other bonuses. It's fully restored at the end of battle. You only loose HP when there is no more DR, except for attacks that ignore DR. Making that a powerfull strategy and a beautiful way to control tanks (both as enemies and IN the player's party)

I like that setting because it helps balance every team you could make. DR allows for a mage to get really high protection from spells, just like a Warrior does with just his armor. And EP is something i like to use that just mimics MMORPG's a bit. In that every Class has some sort of magic.

So, A warrior will develop skills where he can raise his damage, number of attacks, Buffs or shields and even increase the range of his melee attacks. While Wizards just get more elemental spells and "Forms" .

i prefer to use the Form + Element magic system. As in, each form of magic has Ups and downs, and you can just add any elemental you already know to create a new spell. So, a "Bullet" Form is harder to dodge, while a "Dome" form will hit anything around you. And a "Charged" form increases the range and the number of dices added to the effect per turn charged. And so on. You mix that with elements such as "Elemental Fire" or "Elemental Ice" or "Green Poison" (Green is a subclass of Status magic both positive and negative. So you get your Poison and blind and haste and the such. There is also Blessed Magic that is aimed at clerics). There are others forms such as "Enchant" "Touch" "Party" or "All enemies" "X Targets" "All" etc.

The same thing i usually applies for example on my Bards. They can perform songs that cast buffs or debuffs on the battlefield and they also get unique magic called "Masquerade" where once learned they can Craft special magic masks that once worn in battle give them all sorts of unique Bonus and penalties (i ripped that off straight from Majora's mask)

The other system i use everytime is the Battle Chart. As in, everything related to battle gets done in just one self-explanatory chart and with simple dice rolls.

You get Attack (Any offensive action) Skill (Any action that it's not aimed at yourself that costs EP, so can be used for defense too) for offense. And Dodge (No damage if successful. Damage ignores DR if failed) and Block (Half damage if successful, full damage if failed)

And that's it! The values are determined by your attributes and level up bonuses and they hardly ever cross beyond 10 or 12 on the end game. Any rolls done in battle is a simple 1d6 role (or 2d6 from level 11 and beyond as a optional rule) + The Battle Chart value + Bonus and Penalties. Both sides roll, higher number wins.

That's a resumed version of the logic i put behind my Fantasy Setting games. Usually i have many classes avaliable like Assassin ( it's Thief + Ninja ), Monk, Ranger, Machiner (think Gunslinger or Mustadio) and several others.

Now i'm looking for a way to improve on it and translate that to a Fun and fast paced Mech RPG using that map system i showed up there...

Sounds interesting. Seems like you would just need to incorporate ranged damage and movement rules (so many spaces per turn, could be effected by speed?).

i was thinking about something like Pilot's Agility + Mech's Agility - Total Weight = Movement Range.

Maybe this could work if Weight was put in classes instead of Kg or Lb Precision. As in, weight could be classified as "Class 1(value -1)" "Class 2 (Value -2)" instead of 346Lb or 150Kg...

So, a Mech with Heavy armor and lots of Weapons could still have a big punch and a Nice armor but would be

I'll see if i can get my hands on some rough materials, maybe build a prototype map

You could do the weight in tons (or maybe tonnes (metric tons? how does that go exactly?), since you're not American). Although they're all roughly the same based on what this page has to say, so whatever. I mean, we're talking about giant mechs, so measuring in pounds or kilograms is pretty silly in the first place. Like, you wouldn't measure a lake in cups or the planet in centimeters unless you absolutely had to.

Yeah, that makes more sense!

Is that i had the Mechwarrior RPG in mind. I don't recall it 100%, but i know that there was something about the weight system in that game that was a Pain to deal with... but Tons shouldn't be too hard, as long as i can work it with rounded numbers to make it simpler..

I'm also thinking Cross-Class battles. Like, Huge mechs against army of tanks or normal sized aircrafts and the such to give it a feel of a crowded battlefield. At first i was thinking about Mechs doing X10 damage on non-mech units, but instead of fighting just 1 tank or 1 jet, you would be fighting groups of x5 or x10 as they were just 1 unite, and the damage and HP would the calculated as such.

if you really like things like gundam might I suggest going the exalted route and have a pretty big power gap between average mech and player characters. Take Gundam Wing for example. The main characters can basically wipe out an entire base on their own, and it takes something else on that level to match them

You know... i never played exalted, but i was trying to come up with something on those lines.

I'm looking for something that would feel fast-paced and fun, but i think it would serve the game really well if the players felt challenged and empowered at the same time. As in, the real problem they would face is not fighting another Mech like their own, as those would be rare and unique. But more like the real challenge would be facing a entire army. Power in numbers.

Guess i'll have to take a look at those exalted books... i know the System is pretty large, any recomendations of good places to look?

I also got my hands on a couple of Macross and Robotech books to see if i can get an idea or two.

well I like to consider exalted does things in teirs. One of the things I love is that a starting character can mow down mortals, but there are things out there that can crush them just as easily.

Part of it depends on how much of an army you are talking about. You might want to run it simularly where you have run of the mill fodder. Mass produced low grade machines, these would be nothing to the PCs. PC at higher levels would be at the point these fodder couldn't even scratch them. Then you have in-betweens. They are not as powerful, but a good number of them are a threat and an ace (read: high exp one) could match or even beat a starting character. After that is the PC level, and you might consider one above it. Not something to have currently in the setting, but explain it as a more advanced model of what you currently have