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Game Dev - Fetish RPG Rules and Luck
6 years ago
As said in the previous journal, I want to talk about the fetish RPG rules, specifically issues I have related to luck rolls.
-The Rules-
The rules are inspired by a number of games, but mainly Savage Worlds. Here's how that game, and the fetish RPG, work. Stats and skills are not represented as a number, but as a die size. The higher the better. So the strength of an average man might be a six sided die (d6), a weakling might have a four sided die (d4), or a body builder might have a ten sided die (d10). When the character has to make a strength check, let's say kicking open a door, they would roll the die they have for strength. If the result is 4 or more, they win and the door is kicked open. That's it. Obviously there are other rules, but most of the game is what I've described. Roll a die, if the result is 4 or higher, you win.
-Melee vs Ranged-
One problem I ran into early on was with combat. Turn based systems don't differentiate between ranged combat or melee combat in a way that is fun or balanced. Those that do take place on a grid or board where there are options for flanking, cover, area of effect, etc. Not what I was going for with this game.
So for now I'm having a generic "combat" skill until I come up with a more in depth battle system.
-Luck Rolls-
One decision I'm having a tough time making is how to handle luck. To give a simple example. A female character accidentally gets her skirt stuck in a bus door. The bus pulls away and tears her skirt off. Lucky for the players because they get eye candy, not lucky for the character. If a player makes a luck based character, should the character be lucky or the player?
I considered having a luck stat and a mishap stat, but I'd have to be careful to avoid them cancelling each other out. eg. She loses her skirt due to the bus, but immediately finds a replacement. It would also mean those kinds of characters would have to double dip into 2 chance based abilities. I don't know a good middle ground, so any suggestions welcome.
-Clothing and item gain/loss rate-
There's a good chance that characters will lose things during the game. From shoes falling into unreachable areas to clothing damaged by emeny attacks. I've not decided if I want items to be disposable things your lose and regain constantly. Or have them be rare things that the character has to hold on to. Both ways have their pros and cons.
To use the bus-skirt accident example again. It's going to be annoying to lose a valuable item to a chance encounter like that. Especially if you just got it. But if they're rare it means that character could potentially go a long time before finding a replacement, maybe even have to go on a side quest to get a replacement, allowing for more gameplay, and opportunities for fetishes to happen.
Alternatively, items could be common and easy to replace, this would mean the fun stuff would happen more often (if you're into that). Of course, the downside is that it's less special when it does happen, and any losses will ultimately be undone fairly quickly.
One middle ground idea could be to have items be common, but items can only be replaced between quests. That way, if the bus-skirt accident early in the quest, it would mean that the character would be skirtless for a while. Though how long could you reasonably drag out a quest before it gets boring?
-The Rules-
The rules are inspired by a number of games, but mainly Savage Worlds. Here's how that game, and the fetish RPG, work. Stats and skills are not represented as a number, but as a die size. The higher the better. So the strength of an average man might be a six sided die (d6), a weakling might have a four sided die (d4), or a body builder might have a ten sided die (d10). When the character has to make a strength check, let's say kicking open a door, they would roll the die they have for strength. If the result is 4 or more, they win and the door is kicked open. That's it. Obviously there are other rules, but most of the game is what I've described. Roll a die, if the result is 4 or higher, you win.
-Melee vs Ranged-
One problem I ran into early on was with combat. Turn based systems don't differentiate between ranged combat or melee combat in a way that is fun or balanced. Those that do take place on a grid or board where there are options for flanking, cover, area of effect, etc. Not what I was going for with this game.
So for now I'm having a generic "combat" skill until I come up with a more in depth battle system.
-Luck Rolls-
One decision I'm having a tough time making is how to handle luck. To give a simple example. A female character accidentally gets her skirt stuck in a bus door. The bus pulls away and tears her skirt off. Lucky for the players because they get eye candy, not lucky for the character. If a player makes a luck based character, should the character be lucky or the player?
I considered having a luck stat and a mishap stat, but I'd have to be careful to avoid them cancelling each other out. eg. She loses her skirt due to the bus, but immediately finds a replacement. It would also mean those kinds of characters would have to double dip into 2 chance based abilities. I don't know a good middle ground, so any suggestions welcome.
-Clothing and item gain/loss rate-
There's a good chance that characters will lose things during the game. From shoes falling into unreachable areas to clothing damaged by emeny attacks. I've not decided if I want items to be disposable things your lose and regain constantly. Or have them be rare things that the character has to hold on to. Both ways have their pros and cons.
To use the bus-skirt accident example again. It's going to be annoying to lose a valuable item to a chance encounter like that. Especially if you just got it. But if they're rare it means that character could potentially go a long time before finding a replacement, maybe even have to go on a side quest to get a replacement, allowing for more gameplay, and opportunities for fetishes to happen.
Alternatively, items could be common and easy to replace, this would mean the fun stuff would happen more often (if you're into that). Of course, the downside is that it's less special when it does happen, and any losses will ultimately be undone fairly quickly.
One middle ground idea could be to have items be common, but items can only be replaced between quests. That way, if the bus-skirt accident early in the quest, it would mean that the character would be skirtless for a while. Though how long could you reasonably drag out a quest before it gets boring?
Seems really interesting.