It was suggested I make a post in this forum. I am working on designing my own role-playing game system. This system is actually more of a system designed to assist with the balancing of campaigns while offering a system that can handle most any campaign or genre.

The general premise is a point-based system that is used to create more static races, classes, and powers which the players will use.

Currently I am looking at using a roll-over resolution system (using a d10 as the die type). Action types would be minor, movement, and standard. I am looking at an enhancement system as the resource for handling varied levels of powers.

The enhancement system will basically function by a player using a minor action to gain one enhancement point. The maximum on enhancement points would be equal to ten (allowing for a single die to be used to easily keep track of them all). This system would allow for powers that could have varied levels of strength based on how many enhancement points put in, powers that need more power to function, or even powers that need maintenance to function over a period of time.

For attributes I'm looking at using body, mind, and soul. I'm looking at speed, initiative, and dodge as secondary attributes. I was looking at using a physical attack/defense and supernatural attack/defense attributes for handling attacks and damage reduction. However, having four attributes devoted to those aspects may be a bit too much (I'd love input).

Anyways.. that where I'm currently at. I'm trying to get the general ruleset designed before creating the system for developing powers as the powers will be effectively static in the end. Please give me any comments or criticism.

I've heard "Body Mind and Soul" as stats before - is that from Tri-stat? The most interesting thing to discuss, right now, would be the "enhancement/essence" system. How do you imagine a "power" to work and what is the difference between spending 1, 2 and say 5 essence?

Well, I have not designed the exact power creation system yet...so I couldn't give ya some exact powers. However. For an example. You want a PL (power level) 1 character to have a magic bolt ability and a fireball ability. The bolt would be a simple power, and likely take only one essence to cast. However, at that level, having a area of effect fireball spell may cost a bit too much for a basic ability. At PL 1, it may even be as much as a EC (essence cost) 10 ability. Since movement and standard actions could be used as minor actions...that PL 1 character could choose to spend a minor action each turn, move, and fire a magic bolt. He could also choose to charge three turns. On his fourth turn he uses his minor for the last essence and launches a fireball that at that level would very likely shift the battle in the player's favor.

By using a power level structure. The strength of an ability would mean that a max essence cost ability would likely shift the battle a bit, but take time to use.

Using D20 terms, the essence is kind of like Power Points in the psionics system in that it allows you to augment a power. Right?

Would everyone start "empty" in an encounter - why?

Yes, the system is very much like power points. However, using varied methods of gaining essence it could represent rage, tapped tattoos, etc.

Currently I'm looking at starting with zero EP at the start of an encounter. This means that the time cost on casting your big abilities is there every encounter. It also means that you would need to give up at least a minor action to gain that first point to use your minor power. It gives a reason for having a normal weapon, while still allowing the caster to cast all day.

Oddly enough, I've been working on a similar system to try to make something universally applicable to all characters and modular enough to cover different combinations of abilities.

Here's my initial thoughts from my designs:

I am using what I call an Energy Gauge. Each and every character will have a pool of 10 tokens that powers their abilities. (I've been using poker chips to keep track of tokens and 10 tokens is far easier than the hundreds of power points or scads of fire and forget spells)

All "powers" (whether spells, maneuvers, soulmelds, etc) will have an associated token cost and will be chosen from a huge buffet style list.

In my system, characters start every combat with a full token pool. As they use abilities, their pool empties, however, every round they will regain a certain number of tokens with no actions being required from the character to gain them. The pool can never be brought above it's starting max of 10 tokens in this way.

Scalability can be built into powers, as more tokens can be spent on each power, allowing you to get more "bang" from each power. This keeps early powers relevant and allows for some variability in generic power design through augments (psionics style)

Character level would determine how many tokens could be spent on any one effect (again ala psionics), and how many powers a character has access to at a specific time.

Passive and persistant abilities are easily handled, as they effectively subtract from your max pool by tying up those tokens from being used elsewhere.

So, enough about the "basics" of my system as it is really just an engine for resource management, and not a full fledged system. It did really suprise me how similar my ideas were to yours however.

A modular system also allows for ALL characters to have cool things, and I can figure out how to make various magic systems from Incarnum to ToB style schools work in such a system under the same rules for ease of use and translation.

From a Game Designer perspective I can see how such a system could be bolted-on to the existing psionics rules to create a more "per encounter"-ish style.

1, all Manifesters start with 10 Essence. The cost to manifest a power is as printed (Lvl 1:1, lvl 2:3, lvl 3:5 and so on) including augmentations.
2. All manifesters regain 1 Essence per round automatically, which can be increased by spending a Swift or Move action (+1 Essence per action spent)
3. Each manifester can "burn" one token for the encounter to manifest a power for 1 essence per level. So to manifest a 9th level power, the manifester "burns" one of his Essence, then spends his remaining 9 Essence.

I might even adapt this kind of thinking for my Knightmare 4E product because it is so cool! I like what you two got going here

One thing that I really like in a system like this, is that a character can always do something, AND can do the same thing over and over again as many times as they can afford. There is no "I can only do this one use a day" disconnect, but you can simulate it by making the costs of the powers such that it prohibits spamming of more powerful abilities.

Also while there is a budgeting aspect to power usage, a character can go on adventuring as long as he needs too with no "out of gas" aspect that comes from traditional mana systems or Vancian casting. In this case it can even outperform 4E in the all day adventuring department.

It also allows for players to pick and choose whether they want tons of little powers, a few big powers, lots of passives, tons of triggerables, or any combination there of any of these. Creating all of the powers and making them generic enough that they can be reflavored as necessary is the real key to such a system though.

I am really glad you enjoy the concept. The essence idea actually came to me by watching some miniatures games at a Con recently. I loved the concept of resource management that was more strategic. The main reason I did not want to start with essence is it allows for going "nova" and burning your points fast to wipe an encounter right away. By making the user spend time, it feels much less like going nova and more like a trade off.

As for using it as an add-on. I could totally see that being done with the essence system alone. I have more of a full system design in mind, myself. I want to offer a system of developing balanced races, classes, and abilities for campaign development. Interestingly enough, the system idea I have would allow for the RPG to be converted to a CCG, Miniatures, etc..

Have any of you read Elements of Magic? I got it - and I was incredibly impressed with its functionality. I cannot speak to its balance, though, because I haven't had a chance to use it. But it is a system that starts with each spell (although it could easily be called a power) and lets you build the effects you want. Each effect you add makes the spell/power cost more.

The neat thing about their system is that you no longer know "school" or "disciplines." You now know something akin to lists. You might get the "fire" list and the "healing list. So you combine a fire effect with a healing effect that lets you burn a target for 2d6 fire damage and simultaneously heal you for 1d6 hit points. Or, you might get the "teleportation" list and the "illusion" list so that you can make up a new spell that lets you burn a target for 1d6 damage (fire list), create a minor illusion of yourself (illusion list), teleport yourself into the next room (teleportaiton list), and then heal you of 1d6 damage once you get there (healing list). Now, that might be a pretty powerful spell. But that as an example illustrates how EoM handles felxibility. I've always thought it a really neat concept and I offer it up as inspiration if that is the type of thing you might be trying to create.

For the record, they use a powerpoint-esqe style for using spells/powers.

I understand the fear of THE NOVA, but my intention was to mimic the level of Daily powers from 4E that are always available and ready to be used, even at the start of a fight. It also allows for Tome of Battle abilities in that you can guarantee that you will get to use them once per encounter.

By starting at full potential (or perhaps scaling how many tokens you start with) you can allow for some heavy shots early on in a fight without making characters wait to "get to the good part".

The problem with trying to avoid the "Nova" is that it isn't really a mechanical thing, it's a roleplaying/point-of-view thing. You can Nova in 4E by burning through your Daily/Encounter abilities immediately. NO system is immune to the Nova, unless it wants to cripple players. Allow me to demonstrate:

Player A, a Fighter who is GOOD at fighting with his sledgehammer comes into battle. He begins pounding people left and right, dealing righteous damage all the time.

Player B, a Psion who is GOOD at manifesting stuff comes into battle. He starts by meditating for a round or two, while his enemies pound on him and his mates and then he manifests a power or two for a few rounds...

Player C, a "smart" Psion, comes into battle with a sword drawn. He starts by getting a little Essence (1) each round and then runs around poking people weakly with his Sword until he can manifest some righteous damage.

See the problems here? It becomes unfun to play a non-combatant.

Since in my design EC(10) would likely be possibly stronger then a daily from 4E, I could see allowing maybe 5 EP at the start of an encounter. I currently still think that in a battle, being able to throw the big gun immediately every encounter means you would likely end encounters extremely fast (everyone using their EC(10) ability right away each encounter). By requiring the team to channel for higher abilities it leaves a strategy element open (who should work towards a power ability, etc) and it removes nova almost completely. Feasibly, you could even use EC(2) every turn if your team kept the enemies locked down and you did not need to move.

As for the non-combatant issue. The goal is to make channeling for those four turns to be very worth doing, however, the common thing will be to channel one minor, move, bash or bolt. As a user could gain 3 EP/turn if they devoted all actions to it. As EC(10) will be the most powerful ability the character has (and likely only have one of them), it will more likely be something they do only if they really need to. I do see issues with making the channeling player kind of feel left out for a turn. As the most you could be out would be three turns a user that chose to move and do a non-power attack would only gain 3 EP, while a user that channeled would be at 9 EP starting turn 4.

So by turn 3 or 4, the entire encounter might be over if you are unlucky. See, say a non-Essence using Fighter-type gets 3 rounds worth of attacks (depending on system, these might be 3 or 6 or more attacks) while the other guy contemplates his navel.

This system, as proposed, seems to be designed primarily, and almost exclusively, for the "swordmage" concept and long fights (10-15 rounds worth of fighting). That way one can spend an otherwise useless minor action each round to power up smaller abilities such as flaming swords and then focus on running around bashing things.

Actually, its designed around mages as well. It is not designed for the guy who wants a ton of world shaking abilities, however. As for the fighter being a non-essence using class. That would not actually be the case. Essence is a generic name for the resource. A fighter using a maneuver would be using essence as well, so would an archer for example. The concept is that you would generally use a strong power (EC 2), or a normal power (EC 1) each turn. Sometimes you may use an even more powerful power (EC 3 - 5). Rare occasions you would use a really powerful power (EC 6 - 8). Unique occasions would call for an EC 9-10 power.

As an example. The encounter starts with the Mage in a rather good position where he wouldn't need to move anytime soon. Said Mage gains one EP from using a minor, one EP from using his movement, and then launches a energy bolt EC 1. Next turn he can charge two more easily as long as positions haven't changed and blast for EC 3. Or he could easily save another EP while still doing an EC 1 ability. Keep in mind that powers would be effected by attributes and extra EP could be used in a power to augment it. So, EP does have to be regulated decently.

Edit: I'd also like to point out that I am looking at alternative methods of essence gain. When a GM creates a class, they would choose the method of essence gain and then tie it to a fluff (triggering a tatoo, drawing in energy, going into a rage, blood magic, etc..).

The main differences between out systems (other than mine being just a subsystem at this point) is that mine is additive, and yours is multiplicative. This difference in scale is why the Nova problem seems like much more of an issue to you.

The ultimate goal of your system appears to be allowing DMs to create balanced classes, races, and abilities for their characters to then use. My system is JUST a resource management bolt-on that would replace existing systems on other D20 products.

That alone is a very large difference in the direction that we are coming at this issue from, however it does not preclude us from aiding one another. In other words: "Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter."

Well, this is the only place I've posted any info on my ideas. So, I guess you're already subscribed. I do agree that there is a sizable difference in why nova is more of an issue in my system design.

My whole system is kind of in flux as well as I work on it, so eventually I'll have a system that works well.

Is there a particular NEED for the power to rise as dramatically? If the benefits of spending an action aren't equal, then the most logical solution for a party of people will be to divide the group into "doers" and "defenders" - the defenders block enemies from doing anything while the doers charge up.

I think a system where you start at half or full and deplete yourself is better, and thus I also believe that it might be better to not have one level be that much better than the level before it.

Allow me to explain, Ecu - your current model is multiplying the power, thus your fear of the Nova. An additive model (+1 Essence is +1 Point of Damage (for example)) is much easier to curtail and handle.

Been quite awhile since I last responded. No, I'm not dead.

Angellis_ater, I think the main thing is that its not so much damage that would increase EC cost as much as additional effects.

As an example...A mage uses a EC 1 bolt to do 5 damage. They may use a EC 2 area spell to still do 5 damage but to everything in a small area. By allowing a user to say have a EC 10 blast immediately would mean they could start combat with a power that either does decent damage or maybe has a ton of effects tied to it which can cause problems in balancing the additional effects in the first place. If every character started an encounter with 10 E, and each of the party used a 10 EC ability it might not be really a damage nova but an ability nova that could in effect end the encounter and make it rather boring.

By requiring the user to gain a bit of essence to accomplish something, they step through combat in a more fluid pace. While a summoner may be able to summon a small EC 1 creature to help fight the party, perhaps drawing the energy to summon a EC 10 creature would take a bit and the party needs to try defend him. When the EC 10 summon is cast, it would make up for the delay it took to cast.

I experienced having all my points accessible in 3.5E psionics. Even with a manifestation cap per power, some ability combinations turn out way too good and a power gaming player will end up ruining things for the group by going nova. While building a more additive system can help that, it still leaves that option there for some things (especially in a system that is designed with a more free form design).

I have been considering a design change to my initial concept that would be a sort of two part energy system (Essence and Focus). Essentially one would start with X amount of one type at the beginning of an encounter and when an ability used X Essence, they would gain X Focus and vise versa. In this way, attack and powers would in a way combo and work off each other. I still haven't flushed out this idea completely and am unsure about it over a pure essence system.

Anyways.. apologies to my long absence, a ton of stuff was happening around home so I've been occupied a lot.