As with many things, it's often better to better a jack of many trades than a master of one. You might know the ruleset for D&D 3.5, or Pathfinder, or Traveller 2nd edition, perfectly and word-backwards, but being able to extrapolate between systems, steal mechanics and ideas, and adapt things that seem cool, is a great ability to have.
So, get your hands on anything you can try out. Hit up DriveThruRPG and see what's on special and can be picked up for free, or for very cheap! See what old games you've got lying around that you can read through, and see if there's anything, even just one thing, that you can use. This week, I picked up a cheap copy of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game. It's got a mechanic I plan on stealing, whereby the options you choose for making your character reduce the number of Story Points you can use for spending within the game for having 'just the right thing' in your pocket, or knowing a friend in the right place, or completely derailing the plot by dumping all your points at once. Using 'points' to allow characters to make something up and have that actually be true in-game, lets people buy in and commit to why their character has an old buddy who's a minotaur, or why there's actually a battleship in orbit not disclosing whose side it's on, and let players pull amazing con-artist style tricks ("Oh no, I swapped that with the fake safe while we were driving through the tunnel"). Apocalypse World has a system I really enjoy, where you choose how you fail or succeed- generally, succeeding at something lets you choose some consequences that don't happen, like the following choice: Major success (choose three), Success (choose two), Fail (choose one) - It doesn't make a big mess - It doesn't cost you a lot, in gear or cash - It doesn't take ages to do - It doesn't hurt anyone Using a system like this, players are aware of the potential consequences to start with, and know how much is riding on the roll. They also get to customize what they succeed at, even if it goes wrong- they'll still get a "bad" outcome, but they can potentially minimize the harm to your wallet, your friends, your spare time, or your surroundings, but not all of them. Shadowrun 2nd edition had a system where you prioritized your options when making a character, so an elf was "more powerful" than a Human, and a Troll was more powerful than an Elf, which reduced how many points you had to spend on your ability scores, your skills, and your overall wealth. This could be translated to a D&D type game whereby an "exotic" race like a Tiefling might be rarer than a Human, in the same way that a Paladin might be rarer than a Fighter. Having some kind of balance might help your players feel more comfortable in playing "sensibly balanced" characters, rather than one where Dragonborn, Aasimar, Genasi, Half-Orcs, and Humans are all equally choosable with Warlocks, Paladins, Fighters, and Wizards. So go through your library and have a look at all those books you've never played. See what catches your fancy and what makes you think "ooh, that's fun, how can I use that?" Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 29 March 2019. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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