| From: | "Robert Pendergrast (Tom)" <3011_3@***.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Explanation of Char Creation system... |
| Date: | Fri, 11 Oct 1996 11:32:31 -0700 |
with all of the numbers...
The system I came up with is based on two assumptions: 1-SRII is
a gae that encourages min/maxing through the game mechanics. 2-MOST (not
all) SRII players min/max their characters accordingly. Face it, 6
rating 6 skills, and 1 rating 4, are worth more Karma than 8 rating 5...
or any other combo of skill ratings... Willpower 6 is TWICE as difficult
to get with a manabolt... etc... So when I sat down to make this system,
I wanted to factor out the min/maxing.
Basically what I did (gross simplification), is I took all the
feasible character priority combos (ABCDE however), and set them equal to
each other, and solved for each variable. Now that is much easier than
it sounds, 8 hours of work and, front a back of 15 pieces of paper of
notes...
You may look at some of the things that I've done and think,
"Well that is really stupid, why did he do something like that?" The
answer is this: You may have a different way of thinking than I do, and
you may be perfectly happy with the game as is (riiiight). I did this to
clear up problems I had with the char creation system as it is, I didn't
do it to try and convert the world to my way of thinking.
One of the things I liked most about it, (and what I've gotten
the most critic.... er feedback from) is Force Points. The thing that
always pissed me off about force points, was you had to have a rich mage,
to get any spells... that precluded the chance for a drek-hot-but-poor
mage, which is the kind of thing that I like... so, when I figured out
the resources and magic, I factored force points out of them, and reduced
the costs accordingly. Don't think that I'm a magekin giving bonuses to
mages; cuz I'm not. They still have to pay for them, just in a different
way.
The way I came up with the cash is this: I tried to find an
equation that matched up with all of the nuyen priorities graphed against
their opportunity cost. That is, I figured out about how many points
(Karma) you had to give up to to get each level of resources, then
graphed that. I came up with a really funky equation, which is basically
exponential, with a whole lotta constants.
Last ran..- I mean thought. You will probably find that certain
priority combination can't quite be made with this system, or that some
combos get slightly more than usual; This is *not* intentional. It is
both a failing of the SRII system (hey NO system is perfect, except
AD&D... **NOT**), and the way that I came up with it. So, please, mess
around with it, send comments, questions, ANYTHING, (please) my way...
---Tom---
One Final Note: I used MetaHumanity Priority C to come up with this...
One More Final Note: anything that uses funky priorities, Like Otaku,
should pay points identical to their priorities... in the case of Otaku,
125, (formerly priority A).
