Ham's Fallout inspired RPG

[Ham701]

Facebook chat is too clogged to talk about my game there, so thread time!

After being bored to death in DnD(Doesn't even matter what edition, it's the DM), I have decided to come up with my fresh and original system, inspired by such works such as Fallout, Mad Max, Mein Kampf, and Brikwars. The basic premise is an Earth like world destroyed in a war between the Human nations and the third party Orkish Empire(which are smart orks, not dumby orks). The advantage of this is to put players in a world they really don't know the history of. In Fallout, NPCs could say "history" we the players know is false. In the RPG, the players are about as clueless as the characters. Old Man Jenkins could talk about pseudo-Hitler as if he were a God, and we wouldn't know the difference

The campaign is set in a region seperated by a large river. On this river lies what was before the war a small city(think 200,000 max) that is now a hub of civilization. For whatever reason, it was spared from most of the destruction(later found to be the result of a long sabotage campaign). Two main factions wish to claim the city for their empire, one being the NCR knock-offs, the other being the Kingdom. The Kingdom feels society was destroyed because of faults in democracy, so they return to an older time. Their 'suits of armour" are really power suits without the power. The reigning King is dying, and the PCs have to find a solution to the power struggle by either supporting the heirs, supporting the rival family, or taking the throne for themselves.

One of the things I'm trying to stress is disunity. I feel it would be more fun if the PCs choose different factions to support. Wouldn't it be great leading a charge into the urban jungle when your former team mate pops out leading his own patrol?

Anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg, feel free to suggest anything.

[knolli]

You know: Never spit the party! It's better for GM and the players.
I agree it could be fun if the PCs were to turn on each other. But it is hard to realize or rather much work for the Game Master because you have to do much private talk to each of the players. If the rest has to wait for half an hour every time, they'll bore to death. Or the plan backfires and the players get angry because they are backstabbed by a (former) teammate.
It'd be a different story if you had two teams from the beginning. But running two groups simultaniously is hell for the GM.

[Ham701]

Fuck your logic.

[Keldoclock]

Asks for advice, then tells the advice-giver to go fuck himself.

Nice.

[knolli]

Maybe my argumentation was a bit onesided on the negative points. If you pull it off and your players have fun, you are an awesome GM.

The setting looks interesting. Not the old black-and-white.
Don't confuse system and world. To play in a new world, you don't need to write new mechanics and generate yet another set of rules. Many systems are game independant or only need minor adjustments.

[stubby]

Asks for advice, then tells the advice-giver to go fuck himself.

[Ham701]

Maybe my argumentation was a bit onesided on the negative points. If you pull it off and your players have fun, you are an awesome GM.

The setting looks interesting. Not the old black-and-white.
Don't confuse system and world. To play in a new world, you don't need to write new mechanics and generate yet another set of rules. Many systems are game independant or only need minor adjustments.

During the split, myself and the current player(s) would stay in one room of my basement, while the others go off and play video games or something. Or I'll have meets just for one or two people, as schedule conflicts are deadly to our D&D game. This will hopefully curb the lack of focus that makes encounters so damn long. Also, I'm a Time Piltogg, and will limit turns to maximum of 5 minutes in order to get on with the storyline. No remedy for work I have to do.

The rules themselves are based off of 4E(bitch all you want) that's been stripped of the things I find useless, and classes. I got rid of classes because 6. It's guns, and 7.I want players to not be restricted by classes. With that goes most powers. This should hopefully force players use creativity when sheer firepower isn't enough. For example, our heroes are running from the totalitarian authority in the sewers. Ahead is a patrol currently oblivious to their presence. Guns would alert other nearby soldiers, and no one has silenced weapons. Since one player is trained in acrobatics and stealth, he can make a skill roll and try barrel roll behind the enemies, slit their throats, and move on. The things you could do with skills if you couldn't use powers...

[OneEye589]

Isn't there an RPG system that uses strictly skills instead of specific classes? Everyone gets a certain amount of points every level and you can put them into any skill you can imagine, which is pretty much exactly how Fallout 3/NV is. Though, as your skills get higher, it takes more than one point to put a skill level up (kind of like doing D&D stats with a point system instead of rolling). Raising from a 10 to 11 takes one point, but raising from 16 to 17 takes 3 points or whatever.

Anyway, that sounds like the kind of system that would be easier to use, especially if you're planning on the group splitting up. Any way to make things quicker in that situation sounds best.

[knolli]

There are games that come without class and level system. The Dark Eye, for example.

The profession you choose for your character in the beginning only sets the social background, the starting points and some major bonuses (if your char is able to use magic). After that you directly use the XP you earn to increase your talents and buy new skills. Mages have to pay the same costs as a soldier if they want to train their weapon proficiency. But of course there are ingame laws that prohibit mages from carrying great swords (although some manage to get a dispensation) and heavy armor suppresses mana regeneration.
In the end the system is so complicated that you need a PC programm to generate and administrate your chars. You don't want to do all the sums by hand.

[Keldoclock]

There are some pretty good java-based GURPS character sheets. I've had moderate success with them.

[Ham701]

This sounds way too complicated. I think I'll stick to my original plan of using D&D Ability scores and just changing some skills.

[Keldoclock]

You want a good simulationist guns system, use GURPS.

You want a fast and easy guns system just use Legend, equip the PC's with reskinned bows(I'm pretty sure the legend CRB has extensive firearms rules, but I'm erring on the safe side of things) and halve everyone's HP.

[IVhorseman]

Just do what works. Fuck learning GURPS.

[jmatthew]

The Cortex System is made for making up your own RPG settings and stuff. It's very different from D20, but really easy to work with and use to invent your own game.