Dev Discussion: Crafting Your Hero's Core

RPG Stats and Statlines

So when I began this journey I realized I didn't like the existing implementation of GameGuru Max(GGM)'s base RPG stats. The implementation was as follows:

• Strength: Add 100 HP per point.
• Dexterity: Add 100 Stamina per point.
• Intelligence: Add 100 Mana per point.
• Armor/Armour: Who cares, I'm not keeping it.

Having over a decade's worth of TTRPG experience in a number of systems (D&D 2E, 5E, Shadowdark, Battletech ATOW 4e, and Mechwarrior Destiny) gave me a strong understanding of what works and what doesn't. I've actually run on the order of several hundred games as a dungeon master over that time, with one game actually still ongoing that has stretched out over 200 games for over 8 years. I had a good idea of what I wanted.

The updated RPG system

So the first thing was a complete overhaul of the stats being used. With the elimination of Armor (as it is a skill, not a stat) from the stat line, I had to add something to bring this up to parity with more modern systems that typically settle between four and six primary attributes to work off of. I my add more in the future, but as it was I settled on a physical endurance statistic, which is typically called Body. Some systems call it vitality or endurance. I may yet change it as it's really just a name at ths point, but for now it's a Body score. I also reworked all the existing stats to make more sense for what this kind of game was going to be.

THE UPDATED STATLINE:

Strength: No longer affects HP; Instead what it does is modify your carry capacity (TBA), general damage resistance (calculated after armor), melee damage (adding a modifier to your damage output) and will be used as a general check for 'feats of strength' in game.

• Dexterity: Adds a slight boost to movement speed, Increases ranged damage (TBA), reduces stamina use via modifier instead of increasing total stamina gained, increase casting speed (TBA), and used as a general check for 'feats of dexterity'
• Intelligence: Increase experience gain (TBA) by a small amount, Increase mana capacity, Increase spell damage, and used for feats of arcane knowledge.
• Body: A totally new stat, increases total HP per point, increases your total exhaustion (new mechanic I added), and resistance to toxins (TBA/up to 50% damage reduction).

So there's probably some explanation required here. Feats of strength for instance would be "moving a large boulder". Feats of Dexterity are things like "pick a hard lock". Feats of arcane knowledge would be "Using a powerful crystal skull's magic to open a secret door".

Obviously these systems are not complete, though a great many have actually been added.

Exhaustion is a new mechanic I added, as well as the stamina modifiers, melee damage boost and the like. Everything is working at this point and I take regular git snapshots.

Where does that leave us?

So with the addition of these new stats, the question becomes 'what should maximum level be?'. If I allow player levels to go too high, everyone will end up with the same types of level.

So after some statistical analysis, I came up with a heatmap to demonstrate why I thought a cap of 5 points per stat and a maximum level of 12 was optimal:

So this is about as clear as mud. It makes a pretty picture, but doesn't display quite how I wanted to display it, since I'm trying to use a 3D heatmap.

Instead I chose a different method and this gave me what I was looking for:

Statistics are one of those things I sort of gleefully enjoy. So what's important here is the mean build, which is to say if you have 12 points, and put 3 points in each Stat, that'd be your 'perfect middle build'.

So as you can see, the BULK of the builds are actually clocking in as highly variable from the Mean. What this does is show that the largest variety of builds actually exist with large away from the mean.

TL;DR: There's 1250 total builds available, and the vast majority are very different from the average.

So that's where we are. I'm currently working on these underlying RPG systems for Pre-Alpha Build 1; The map will be.. very basic and simple. The weapons are mockups. The enemies are probably as basic as possible.

That said... the core RPG mechanics are going to underpin that from the get go.