Feedback on character creation and combat

[tyrion]

I'm writing a gamebook (not a Dragon Warriors or fighting fantasy one!) and would appreciate some advice on the character creation and combat system.

Characters have three stats: strength, dexterity and health points. To work out strength and dexterity, roll 3d6 and discard one of the dice. Add 6 to one of the remaining dice and 6 to the last die; these are your strength and dexterity scores. For health points, again roll 3d6 and discard one of the dice and add 12 to the total of the two remaining dice.

During the adventure, you will be asked to test your strength or dexterity, which is rolling 2d6; success is less than or equal to that stat.

Combat is the same as fighting fantasy, roll 2d6 and add your attack score. Attack is either strength or dexterity, depending on what type of weapon you are using. You can only use your strength score for strength based weapons, and dexterity for dexterity based weapons.

Once per combat, you may test your strength (if using a strength based weapon) to do extra damage, or test your dexterity (if using a dexterity based weapon) to reduce damage done to you.

[misomiso]

What is your question?

[CharlesX]

tyrion is saying he wants "some advice" and the title of the thread is "feedback" so my guess is he wants replies on whether this would be a good system, whether it is nuanced enough or too complicated, in particular guidance from those maybe with experience of their own system\housing ru'ing\just RPG DMing whether this would be a workable system. As someone who hasn't had such experience I'm perhaps not well-qualified, although what Tyrion's written doesn't sound too bad. I would say it's often the encounters and gameplay that make a game rather than the system (take Keep Of The Lich-Lord, which is both an FF and a Fabled Lands RPG), and Tyrion hasn't mentioned that sort of thing or anything unusual or USPish such as a magic system or other attributes such as Special Skills. If Tyrion's plan is to create a system that is simple and accessible even more will depend on how his game plays\reads.

[tyrion]

Jul 30, 2023 18:45:52 GMT misomiso said:

What is your question?

I suppose the question is: what do you think?

[sylas]

For the moment, it's extremely similar to FF rules apart from the separation of Strength and Dexterity based weapons but it is essentially the same. It's more probable that your attribute scores will be higher than those using FF rules but hard to gauge the effectiveness without context of the opponents you might face, how often you may be able to heal, how much damage the weapons do, etc.

If the most important thing is to end up with higher scores than FF then, yes, your scores will likely be higher. Does it work? Yes, but dependent on how well it is incorporated into the actual gamebook itself, which should be the more important factor.

[misomiso]

I think the rolling system sounds ok, but I wouldn't 'drop the lowest' for the life stat. 2d6+12 is already quite reasonable, and rolling three die is unnecessary.

But if you are going the stats route I would almost suggest you go for THREE stats, Strength, Dexterity, and Will / Mind / Wisdom etc, as two feels not quite enough.

But that's just my 2 cents.