UR Character Creation

[SDragon]

Here's a rough idea of something I'm thinking of having in my system, maybe it might interest you:


After each session, the GM gives a certain amount of XP (or whatever term you end up using) to each player. For however much XP the character earned, the player remembers that many things the character did during that session, and lists them along with the skills that was used to do them. So much XP specifically associated with a certain skill, and they can increase that skill.

Example: The GM grants John 3 XP for a session. In this session, he hotwired a car (lockpicking), engaged in vehicular combat on a crowded highway (driving), sold a shipment of illegal firearms (social skills), and was in a firefight (ranged combat). Since he obviously can't choose all of these, he decides that selling the illegal firearms doesnt warrant much of a mention, so he associates one XP each with lockpicking, driving, and ranged combat. He also has quite a bit of XP already associated with lockpicking, so he can choose to add a new rank in that.

[Nomadic]

That is actually a neat idea. I will take a look into it. Thanks for bringing it up. :)

[Xeviat]

Nomadic, you are going to need flaws and advantages (feats) in order to create enough differentiation in a skill based system. Some people are ambidextrous (wouldn't be a skill because there's no point taking it above a certain level of proficiency), some people are overweight, some people have heal spurs (my condition), some people are allergic to wheat. In a skill based system, players are going to want to be able to create anything. The trick is to not give someone points for taking a disadvantage unless it is an actual disadvantage.

I really recommend you look at Mutants and Masterminds. It is a simple class-less system based on the 3E d20 system, so it should be an easy transition. One important thing to look at is the costs of abilities (which all scale like skills).

Cost per Bonus.
Attack Bonus: 2 points per bonus
*Melee Attack Bonus: 1 point per bonus
*Ranged Attack Bonus: 1 point per bonus
Defense Bonus: 2 points per bonus (1/2 is dodge)
*Dodge Defense Bonus: 1 point per bonus
*Flat Defense Bonus: 3 points per bonus
Fort/Ref/Will Saves: 1 point per bonus (each separate)
Skills: 1 point per 4 skill points
Feats: 1 point per
Powers: Varies

Every session, you gain experience points to spend on your abilities. Your "level" determines maximum values for all abilities, and your level determines starting xp, but the GM can level you at any time (so while a level 10 character starts with 150 points, a level 10 character could have 300 or more points without gaining a level, it's up to the GM when the levels progress).

It is quite simple to give XP and let the players spend it where they want. Ask that they justify it, but that's all you need to do. Unless you want to use my earlier suggestion about tracking experience for each skill (which wouldn't be too hard, just tedious), having the players just play along is best.

[Nomadic]

I was actually thinking just a standard exp check (quite similar to what you said before). A player does something and the DM determines how much exp in what skill they got for it.

Oh and I didn't mean I don't like feats (I plan on having them), I just never allow feats for flaws. I will allow flaws if the players desire a bit of extra flavor for their character, but that is about it.

I do like the points setup for feats though. Is there any way to handle it for special feats (like spring attack and that stuff) or is that just kind of a hit and miss play test thing?

[Xeviat]

It's more simple to make all feats cost 1 point. If something seems worth more than a single feat, break it up into two feats and have prerequisites.

[LordVreeg]

feats are just advanced skills in guildschool.sub skills or subs of sub skills.

[Xeviat]

Some feats can be ranked, or they could even be bonuses for reaching certain skill level. Like "improved critical" could be something that anyone gets when they reach 10 points in a weapon skill ... or something.

[Nomadic]

I like that, possible possibility. Back to the earlier question then. What should I do about stats?

[Xeviat]

I like having stats, but you want to have a way to boost them. Think of them as "overskills", each stat adds to many skills, so it is more "efficient" to buy the skill than to buy the stat if you want tons of skills related to that stat.

Some systems work around this. You could have caps on how many skill points someone could have based on level, and a cap on ability scores based on level, so the only way to break those caps would be to have a high skill and a high score.

Other systems have a way of keeping things under control. L5R uses a rollxkeep system. You roll a number of dice equal to your skill ranks + your ability score, but you keep a number of dice equal to your skill ranks (for instance, if you had a "charisma" of 3 and "diplomacy" of 3, you'd roll 6 dice and keep the highest 3, then compare to the target number).