Decision Paralysis

Hey guys! Dev diary #9 wasn't very juicy, so here's an extra one for today! In this dev diary, I want to go through the various means of character progression I am going to implement in SMA. Progression I'm planning for progression in SMA to follow a pretty free-form system, predictably inspired by the widespread point-buy progression systems in JRPGs. My current plan is for characters to gain a couple different types of points as they level up which can be spent on a different things to improve their strength: Improving Attributes Gaining new Skills Improving existing Skills Gaining new Abilities Gaining new Feats Improving Attributes Just like so many other RPGs, you'll be able to impove some attributes of your atttributes as you progress through levels. This will just be a simple system, something like "whenver you reach a level that is a multiple of 5, gain an attribute point". Pretty standard stuff all in all. Gaining New Skills & ...

Hey all. In today's SMA dev diary, I wanted to go over the actual mechanical bonuses a character will get from their attributes. I did debate for a little while whether to use only modifiers in SMA or to use a modifier/score system like D&D, but I settled on using a modifier system pretty quickly. The arguments for and against using both don't really seem all that interesting, so I won't waste time going over them in detail here. Also the last dev diary was one of those sorta comparison-y posts, didn't wanna do the same thing twice in a row. To give a quick summary, I just don't think having attrbute scores adds enough to justify their existence, and a lot of the stuff they are used for could easily be handled by just a modifier when the system is built around that. My current plans for player characters are to have modifiers that range -4 to +4 at character creation, before counting any boosts a character might have from their species. Players will be able ...

Hey all! In this  Saturday Morning Adventure  dev diary, I talk about saving throws and their inclusion (or exclusion as the case may be) in SMA. I've spent enough time browsing D&D subreddits to have seen the idea of removing saving throws brought up a couple times. I do think there's a legitimate argument against saving throws to be made, so I wanted to go through some of the major points for and against them quickly. Though before that, I should probably explain what the main alternative is. The most common proposal I've seen for replacing saving throws is a set of defence scores, like Armor Class. This is sort of what the  Unearthed Arcana: Variant Rules  system of "players make all rolls" uses, though they don't specifically refer to defensive scores. So what are the benefits of each system? Point to Defence Scores: A Defence for Every Attribute is Too Much Having a separate defence for every attribute in the game usually ends up with some ver...

In today's  Saturday Morning Adventure  dev diary, I wanted to go into my plans for designing the action economy in SMA. It seems to me that the majority of RPGs these days use what I'm gonna call a "fixed slots" system when it comes to their action economy. Every round, each character has the same fixed slots that they can use to perform certain actions. For example, in D&D you have exactly one Action, one Bonus Action, and one Reaction to spend every round. This system works pretty well for obvious reasons: it's simple, easy to balance, everyone gets the same opportunities to act during the round. And while I do think I'm probably going to implement this sort of system in SMA, I first want to at least consider an alternative: action points. Action Points In an action point based system, each character would get a number of action points or AP at the start of each round. This number would be determined by their attributes, and could be a fixed numbe...

In today's Saturday Morning Adventure dev diary, I discuss my plans for the magic system in SMA. In the video games that inspired this entire project, magic tends to work quite differently to D&D. Sure magic can be used in combat, using set spells to create certain effects. But outside of combat there is usually no need for ruleset to govern the magic, so it tends to be narratively hand-waved. Characters seem to just create various effects on the fly using their own prowess and knowledge without necessarily following a set formula. This vibe of having magic more like a skill than bunch of set effects someone can create is really something I want to come through in SMA. The mechanical inspiration for my proposed system comes from listening to The Adventure Zone , an actual-play podcast that's just fantastic. In one season of TAZ, they used the RPG system " Monster of the Week ". In Monster of the Week, magic users have access to two options: the "Use Magi...

Hey all, in this  Saturday Morning Adventure  development diary I'm going to go into what my plans for the skill system in SMA. It should be no great surprise to regular readers of this series that I am once again citing The Angry GM, this time particularly the articles " I Hate Ability Scores (In D&D 5E) " and " Being In-Flex-Able ". The core ability check system that is widely used in many modern RPGs can go really underappreciated. I would wholly recommend the Angry GM articles I mentioned earlier for anyone that wants to learn a little more about what RPGs were like before the ability check was broadly adopted. But to summarise, the ability check system - in which a player describes their action, then the GM decides which attribute it falls under and if any skills apply - is a very solid and versatile foundation when done right. However, Angry also points out one of the issues with the skills system, in that often players can see their skill li...

Hey all, in this Saturday Morning Adventure dev diary I wanted to talk about something a bit less direct than just the mechanical systems of an RPG, but more a particular design philosophy behind RPGs, that being design symmetry. So what is it? I'm glad you asked, imagined reader. Design symmetry means when the design of a game applies in the same way to two different things somehow. Here in particular I'm talking about symmetry between how player characters and non-player characters are mechanically treated in the rules. In a symmetric system, a player should be able to point to an NPC and say "I want my character to do that", and it should be possible within the rules. Whether the GM lets them is another story. For example, in D&D 5e the NPC mechanics are somewhat symmetrical. NPCs can make attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws in exactly the same ways as PCs. The ways in which they interact with the game world are symmetrical. However, their ...