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I like both ideas, but then again... I don't know. I don't want this to become too numerical, and especially with the experience thing, it feels like it's happening that way. Also, the battle system takes a lot out of the freedom of RPing (being able to choose whether you dodge or are hit, and how) but also makes it a bit more fair. My suggestion for the battle system is that we set up an arena thread separate from the storyline and have different people battle there just for fun, using that system, to test it out. The problem I have with experience is that eventually everyone in a clan will be a really high level and it will take out some of the skill in RPing a lower level character. Another idea is that instead of the experience thing, the Clan Mods can distribute a certain amount of levels within the clan, depending on who they thought was a better RPer (but this also is problematic, so maybe not.)

Golem: I know what you mean. I don't want things to become too numerical either, that's why I kept the system as simple as possible. I included the XP system because that way people have something to work for. I do not intend to give a lot of power per level, so high level characters will only be slightly stronger than low levels. They will just have more spells. Giving out levels in stead of XP would work as well, but XP allows for a more 'detailled' distribution of rewards. For example, if two people do the same quest, but one did slightly better, it would be a bit extreme to give that one character a whole extra level. Giving a bit of extra XP would be more fair IMHO, also because you'd have to keep up the good work to gain enough bonuses to make a big difference.

Perhaps it's indeed a good idea to have an Arena thread seperate from the storyline. Not only because it would allow for testing and tweaking without messing up the actual quests, but also because the system is meant for PvP, which isn't scheduled in the first quests anyway. Of course, PvP could happen in the town threads, but for those cases freestyle will be good anyway.





Lilthisia: I actually first wanted to give levels/point to the clans to divide themselves, but I've changed it because of something Golem mentioned earlier over PM.Giving XP to individual members not only removes that problem, but also gives the opportunity to reward -for example- good roleplaying of an individual player. I do however agree with your point that this is an RP based on teamwork...

I am not at all worried about balancing the classes. Since there are only 2 stats and 1 dice roll involved in the hit calculations, it's easy to calculate the percentages (every point in Off increases accuracy by 5%, every point in Def increaces defense by 5%. this is not counting the 1 and 20 rolls, but since everyone has those they don't effect balance too much.). I could even add a lot of extra things to the system while not making it any more complicated and still keeping a virtually perfect balance. I've got some experience making systems for RPs, so I know what I'm doing. wink I wouldn't even suggest it if I didn't know I could keep the balance.

Stat distribution would be easy. There's just the base, class modifier, and level bonus.

Example:
Base is the same for everyone. Let's say it's Off5/Def10 (I'll ignore Energy for the sake of the example).
Class modifiers depend on the Class you choose. Let's say you're a very agressive class with little defense. It gives you Off+1/Def-1
Last there's your level. Let's say you're level 3 and you get 2 points per level. This gives you 6 points. Perhaps you like defense, and add Off+1/Def+5.
Your final stats (the only thing you need to remember) would be Off7/Def14

Actually, typing that has got me thinking that a D20 might not be the optimal dice choice. Bigger dice would definately be better for balance between low levels and high levels.





Anyway, as I've said, I know that adding a system to Clan Wars might make things less fun. I won't try to defend the system. I'm just presenting it here as it is, and hope the input you guys provide I can improve it. The biggest question here is not if you like this system, but wether or not you like the idea of having any battle system in Clan Wars. That's the biggest thing I'm really unsure about.

I guess the answer to that question is that I would rather keep the combat free form. As I said, I like to think that its unnessecary to implement a system. The only thing I'd miss is that the die roll enforces the chances for getting those lucky shots that just wouldn't otherwise be possible. Some of what I'm trying to stay away from here is my own tendancy to make the character a secondary concern when numbers get involved. That's not to say that I don't like systems with numbers and stats and such, I'm just being forced to realize that I wouldn't like so see them in this rp. As always, I'll bow to the majority on this, and I might even change my mind later.

About the clan points vs. character exp thing... I would personally say that if the clan leader wants to favor one person, that's a problem to be settled within the clan. The reasoning behind this is that the clan leaders are supposed to be the leaders, and organizations ussually suffer if their leaders lead poorly. I would think it would be reasonable for the clan leaders to recognize that keeping the power level of their members relatively even allows them more options and flexability which is strategicly preferable to relying on one or two heavy hitters.
That being said, I can also see where this might cause frustration on some players part if some of the leaders do in fact choose to play favorites. Obviously this is not something we want, since we're here to have fun. (right? sweatdrop ) It may be more difficult to judge the preformance of individual players though, and that can bring a whole different set of complaints. As I said, I think the clan points method is preferable in this case, but if other people feel it will cause too many problems, change it!

I think that's enough text from me for now, I'll try to give other people a chance to talk... er... type... or something. xd

To Elexa: Mod characters are completely separate from the Clan spell system, and you can have any kind of magic you want. It's crazy.

Anyway, what I was thinking about the battle system is maybe when PvPing, when someone RP's an attack, they generate a random number between 1 and 100. This is simply used as a guideline, and there's no defence roll. So say I attack Kuja and since I'm awesome I get a 75. Now, I don't automatically hit and Kuja gets some freedom of what happens, but the general implication is that I hit him. Say I get a 50, Kuja gets to decide whether or not based completely on his own RPing spirit. This has the bonus of taking away godmoding or cheating risks (that aren't really much of a problem anyway) and also adding structure and balance to the battle, but is much more lenient than the other system and requires almost no work at all. And also, I'm really cool.

Now, anyone who knows anything about me realizes i'm a big fan of rules. However, I think a dice system here is uncalled for. There are two reasons; 1, everyone here is fairly advanced and can do this fairly, and 2, unless you're going to go all out on a system, it isn't worth doing it. In order for it to be right, every spell would need rules, and lots of play testing would need to be done.

However, I AM a fan of knowing my limits. Knowing how many times I can realistically cast a spell, what combination of spells, etc, that sounds luvverly to me. That said, I also like the exp system. It means everyone advances on their own merit. And, like Kuja said, it would be a long time before missions were finished, though I don't think what he said even begins to cover the scope of it- let me share something from personal experience. Those who are familiar with the game I run, we had little Adventures in it. These adventures would involve a handful of people, and were simply three fights. On average, it took 1-2 months to finish one. The game, before it went on hiatus, had been running for about a year and a half. Around 1 in 3 fights you would randomly level up. There were only 2 people who had made it to level 5, and one was extremely lucky, and the other got lots of screen time compared to other players (Cough*Val*Cough*). I guess what i'm trying to say is don't worry about getting people too powerful. It ain't gonna happen unless the game runs for years.

Now, my thoughts about it, is that after you get X amount of exp, you get to choose a new spell. I'm a lil rusty on how it used to work, and i'm sick and didn't read your new system carefully enough, but i'm thinking limit exp to learning new spells.

Also, I like how spell levels are distributed already. A leader at level 3, two level 2s, and the rest 1s, right?

I tend to side with Fen on this one. I feel that rules might be nice, but it would require quite a bit of modification and such of existing things to get them to work well. I think it might be nice to maybe have some sort of MP system, as many of the spells say "can be cast X times before exhaustion", but there's no real conversion between levels. That would provide a nice reference (that is, for those of you who need energy for magic OMFGVISIONROXORSNOENERGYREQUIRED) for how much you can cast them in combination with others. That'd be fairly simple to set up as well, by simply assigning X Energy points required for a spell and each level has Y points to use in whatever combination desired. Some Experience system would be nice, but it would have to be monitored and standardized. Who'd determine what's worth XPing a clan/person? How much is needed to learn another spell or increase an attribute (if we go with attributes, I'll get to that in a minute)? Would we need to standardize what gets experience between clans? All of this'd need to be answered before an experience system'd work.

Now, my main problem with attributes is that not everyone would fit clearly with them. Let's take a few examples from the old bios. DeMarkus's sword/scythe/shapeshifting weapon would probably change damage or to-hit as its shape changed.

Rico Blademoor seemed to be a werecat. Would he need to assign stats for each? The were form'd probably be stronger than the normal form. Would he have extra points for that?

Lastly, let's use Kharan's new bio (not up yet. Waiting for feedback). She's exceedingly weak in upper body strength, limiting her when she fights with a melee weapon (we're talking weak as in "has trouble swinging a normal weight sword around. Her only melee weapon's a rapier, and an exceedingly light one at that). She uses a crossbow, however, which isn't reliant upon strength. Would the crossbow have a different damage than her rapier? And how would Vision and Clairvoyance, which allow the user to see and predict what an opponent will do, factor into defense and attack? All in all, I'd say that a numerical system for that might be more trouble than it's worth. At this point, we're all experienced RPers. I don't see the trouble of letting us work that out on our own and dealing with whatever individual troubles happen as they happen.

I am, however, in favor of the energy points system thing I mentioned to determine how often energy consuming spells may be used and in what combinations with each other. It's be relatively simple to work out and very useful for planning. Some sort of experience system for building up energy or advancing to new spell levels would be easy to implement as well.