Game Mechanics Thread

[Ashram]

I am creating this thread to discuss basic game mechanics. Seeing as Obsidian is creating their own product, I figure this might be a good place to discuss basic game mechanics and things that you like or don't like about systems. The following are a couple of topics but feel free to enter your own ideas to continue the discussion.

 

1) As Obsidian is breaking archetypes, what do you think of doing away with the natural 1 is an auto miss and natural 20 is an auto crit?

 

1-b) If they do stick with the nat 1/nat 20 thing, what do you think about a randomly rolled botch table ala the D30 of doom at many tables...with a similar list for criticals?

 

1-c) Should there be the Nat 20 - Nat 20 - beat AC insta kill or tie AC destroy armor varant?

 

2) How about implementing a form of Condition Track system like SW SAGA did to reflect more accurately what severe damage did to a character. (If the damage beat the damage threshold your character moved a step down the CT giving you penalties to your rolls and eventually KOing you if you didn't use actions to move back up the track)

 

3) Should the game include tripping, disarming, sunder, grappling, and those types of martial maneuvers?

 

4) What about tome of battle themed fighing where characters take stances and perform maneuvers?

 

5) What about combat advantages due to terrain? Cover, height, etc?

 

6) How do you think the devs should handle rest, fatigue, or eating?

 

7) Do you want to see some sort of flying ability allowed?

 

Would you like to see a single attribute bump at intervals or the two different attribute bump per interval?

 

9) Do you think skills should be allocated by skill points or more of a SW SAGA style where you get to choose a # of skills based on class + int and those stats become your favored skills. All skills increase as you level and you still have the opportunity to do skill focus and other things like that.

 

10) Should skills be somewhat simplified. IE Instead of having a Skill for Hide and Move Silent you have Stealth. Instead of Diplomacy or bluff you have Persuasion. Knowledge skills would all be unique, but you get where I am going here.

 

11) Should the game include mounts that particiapte in combat?

 

12) Should the game allow pets in combat and allow you to control them?

 

13) Should weapons or armor be allowed to be damaged or destroyed?

 

14) Should terrain/walls be destructable?

[evdk]

1) We don't even know whether this uses some kind of d20 variant. As for generic critical failure/success I am all for it.

 

2) Liked this in Shadowrun

 

3) Of course, if they find a way to correctly implement them

 

4) I don't know about that.

 

5) Yes, please.

 

6) I'd say rest possibilities for rest should be limited by circumstances, eating - you should have rations or some kind of hunting skill when resting in wilderness otherwise the rest would not be effective

 

7) In isometric engine? Probably not, maybe some kind of situational utility, like levitate in QfG

 

What? You mean character attribute increases? Depends on the system, maybe there won't be any at all

 

9) Allocated.

 

10) No. I love skill monkeys.

 

11) Seems a bit outside of the scope of the game

 

12) Don't know, don't care. Seems superfluous.

 

13) Yessssss. (Preferably it should be working for opponents' equipment as well)

 

14) A 2D painted terrain? Guess not...

[Karranthain]

Some thoughts on weapon mechanics here : http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60205-weapon-mechanics/?do=findComment&comment=1190501

[Entropious]

Now here we have arrived at a vital (and extremely tricky) part of a game. The mechanics. As we already know, Obsidian has already stated that no licenses are going to be used within their product, so we can be certain of something original, or at least original enough so that the developers won't get sued.

 

Basically, two paths are available: Path of the Purist and Path of the Mechaniac. The first one is that of a minimalist, putting as much pressure on plot decisions and plot consenquences, with any and all combat mechanics being as simple as possible (BUT NOT SIMPLISTIC). The latter, more similar to Dungeons and Dragons, is one where every single little possible feature of the game has a statistic behind it, and an overall game mechanics which oversees their intermingling and interaction.

 

Personally, if done correctly, the second option is the preferrable one, as a lot of statistics, for example, give more meaning to various items, both mundane and magical (since they can affect a whole different set of characteristics). However, this is extremely hard to do and, unfortunately, even people currently working at Obsidian have often failed at the attempt, with Planescape: Torment being a prime example.

 

Until I get some more details from the developers (and I doubt they would share some with Your Humble Servant) I dare not say more.

[working man hole]

1) A slight possibility of failure(or success) in combat should exist

3) Absolutely, it was one of critical things missing in IE games

4)?

5) YES!

6) agree with evdk. No nwn style please

7) no

none necessary

9) skills like arcanum, not many levels

10) If there is still enough (>20) skills left, why not

12) what like parrots, pokemons or druid/ranger companions - I don't care for either

13)yes

14) If possible, yes

[KenThomas]

All of this other stuff is fine, but one thing I'd like to avoid is too extensive of auto combat. Playing anything other than a mage far too often gave you a whole lot of nothing to do in fights.

[Ashram]

All of this other stuff is fine, but one thing I'd like to avoid is too extensive of auto combat. Playing anything other than a mage far too often gave you a whole lot of nothing to do in fights.

 

Agreed. This is kind of where I was going with topic 3 and 4. I would like to see some creative options for those melee/ranged types. Maybe some knockback kind of ability, submission...a pinning shot, kicking dirt in someones face to temporarily blind them a boxing of the ears to stun....whatever fits and makes gameplay as lively and varied for martial characters as it is for those who excel in magics.

[Valorian]

1) I want dual-wielding weapons to be a possibility. Don't forget about this fighting style, please.