Feedback wanted

[Arjan]

As i posted in my Anunna RPG thread i am working on a new setting. But it became too complex to have the Setting and Rules in one.

So i stripped the rules from the actual setting.

Over the weekend i sat down to write up all the rules i was thinking about.

I am looking for some people willing to play test it. Especially the new Character creation and character upgrade system.

Attached is the first draft.

Introduction
D20 Instinct is an easy to setup level less, no-nonsense modifier based rule set which focuses on role-play, flexibility, keeping the players happy and making the life of a DM easier.

It is similar as any D20 rule set, but without the time consuming and complexity of things like character creation, leveling up and table lookups.
New in D20 Instinct is the XP-award system. Instead of gathering a pile of XP to finally level up the players will be able to buy things with them like Ability modifiers, feats, saving throws, skills and hit points.

Awarding XP happens during the game, not only at the end of a game session (or at the start of the next session). This will give the opportunity to players to upgrade their character simultaneous. (no more waking up the next day having more strength, hit points, better reflexes and tons of skill experience)

[Arius Vistoon]

i like the approach "simple and efficient". I don't look very deeper skill and feat but the mechanism before is nice and not far away D20 system.

Unfortunately, my time is very short to be a Player tester but i could be a casual tester yes.

[Arjan]

Cheers arius,
I threw the concept into my group today and the way i explained it they werent opposed to it and willing to try.

some of them have the concern that eventually all the characters will be the same. ie, the perfect build. but others say, well if you have certain skill i dont want them (choose more balanced)
I will continue working this out.. fix some issues in the class starter packages, change some of the xp prices and remove references like str16.

the problem, or challenge with D20 modern as this is based on.. imo the classes are quite similar.. not as diverse as a classic warrior, thief, mage.
but we will see how it goes.

will post a new version soon

[Thelandrin]

I can see you've adapted D20 Modern for your setting, but since you're wanting people to buy saving throws, BAB, feats and so on, have you considered checking out Mutants & Masterminds (I think that 2nd Edition is best for this) to see how they handled buying a "level-up"? Monte Cook (or was it Sean K. Reynolds) wrote an article years ago about how all feats are not created equal and implementing a feat point system might be preferable.

I would also recommend some level of skill accumulation, such as in Pathfinder or Lone Wolf d20, especially in regards to the many, many knowledge skills, because if spending on skills directly impacts all your other level-related bonuses, you certainly don't want to have skill redundancies in the system.

[Arjan]

I can see you've adapted D20 Modern for your setting

Yes the players didnt really wanna change from 3.5, but i convinced them that D20 Modern is very similar and could be fun for a change.. but nothing is set in stone.

but since you're wanting people to buy saving throws, BAB, feats and so on, have you considered checking out Mutants & Masterminds (I think that 2nd Edition is best for this) to see how they handled buying a "level-up"?

cool ill take a look

Monte Cook (or was it Sean K. Reynolds) wrote an article years ago about how all feats are not created equal and implementing a feat point system might be preferable.

sean it is, i do share his thought on that.. yesterday i already removed over 22 feats from the list (all that give a bonus to some skill or hit point). the xp price i came up with is cheaper to buy the actual skill point then to spend that on a feat.

I would also recommend some level of skill accumulation, such as in Pathfinder or Lone Wolf d20, especially in regards to the many, many knowledge skills, because if spending on skills directly impacts all your other level-related bonuses, you certainly don't want to have skill redundancies in the system.

not sure what you are talking about here, but ill take a look at the 2

attached is a raw new version (yesterdays edit)
plus a very very roughtly draft on some feats based elemental magic system.

[Thelandrin]

Have you considered making healing a Nature + Life effect? It would likely mean that people throwing around Death effects couldn't also use healing, which might create an interesting niche (or not, I don't know).

By skill accumulation, I mean things like rolling Climb & Swim into Athletics and Balance, Jump & Tumble into Acrobatics if you want an Elder Scrolls feel or maybe Climb, Jump & Swim into Athletics and Balance, Escape Artist & Tumble if you prefer a more a 4th Edition/Saga feel. I wouldn't go too wild though - just merge commonly paired skills, such as Listen, Search & Spot in Perception and Hide & Move Silently into Stealth, with or without Acrobatics and Athletics, otherwise it can end up feeling like 4th Ed macro-skill categories, rather than 3rd Ed skills.

[Arjan]

Have you considered making healing a Nature + Life effect? It would likely mean that people throwing around Death effects couldn't also use healing, which might create an interesting niche (or not, I don't know).

I actually considered healing to be just "Life" .. healing wounds.. "giving back life" "returning life"
I like this way of magic..it is simple, its up to the player what he wants to do with it.. learn to control it and you can do many things with it.. imagination is the limit..
create it (for example fire).. set a house on fire, make campfire.. no need to use your burning hands for that.. i always found that stupid.

so learn to shape it (burning hands, or cirlce of fire etc), learn to move it.. FIRE BALL.

then with "specialization" you can enhance the intensity small, medium, large (could even add huge)

besides the elements i have written down, i might want to add divine to that for the spiritual/priest like spells (with knowledge theology instead of arcana)

By skill accumulation, I mean things like rolling Climb & Swim into Athletics and Balance, Jump & Tumble into Acrobatics if you want an Elder Scrolls feel or maybe Climb, Jump & Swim into Athletics and Balance, Escape Artist & Tumble if you prefer a more a 4th Edition/Saga feel. I wouldn't go too wild though - just merge commonly paired skills, such as Listen, Search & Spot in Perception and Hide & Move Silently into Stealth, with or without Acrobatics and Athletics, otherwise it can end up feeling like 4th Ed macro-skill categories, rather than 3rd Ed skills.

interesting.. although one of my players already mentioned that players eventually choose the same thing, and we end up with 4 almost the same characters, instead of a "balanced" party... gonna have to fiddle with that.