- Nov 8, 2020
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I'm operating under the possibly wrong assumption that character and ability trees will be invested in through point buy to create a unique and custom playstyle experience for each class that each player can tailor to themselves by specializing in abilities that appeal to them. As such I've outlined a bunch of general thoughts and feelings in other threads on this forum to that end in the suggestions area.
That said, if such a system is to be used (not necessarily my outlines, just the system concept), I think having select flaws available to each class is a great way to develop a character as the best heroes, anti heroes and villains are usually best defined by their flaws.
I'd like to first ask that flaws be included in such a way that they can award additional points, up to 2 at start of game (assuming typical potency of point buys), by taking flaws that award points based on severity and frequency. levels of flaws do not necessarily equal a full point, you might see flaws that offer .1 points, or any interval of tenths of a point per level of the flaw (though not all flaws should have scaling levels necessarily). This allows that players could take lesser extreme versions of several flaws, or pile up on 1 point flaws, etc.
Flaws are an optional step in character creation and are considered an advanced feature. As such a prompt appears at the end of creation to select possible flaws that says optional and has an option to skip. Flaws can only be taken at creation or during a respec*
Players can take more flaws than 2 points worth (or amounts that don't total to 1 or 2 points exactly) but they don't receive additional points beyond 2. generating something other than 1 or 2 points prompts a warning that points are always rounded down to the nearest whole point (0, 1, 2) up to a maximum of two and they currently have X points. Takeing a flaw that exceeds two points also prompts this and additionally prompts that flaw points are capped at 2. This allows players to select flaws just for the enjoyment/challenge of it or RP purposes, while also capping the maximum potential out of the gate.
Alternately current weaknesses balanced around can be generally specc'd into for points to reduce flaws inherently present in a class, making the character more potent, but a flaw/enhancement binary choice makes the other mutually exclusive to that character. For example: Vampires are weak in direct sunlight. They can spec to make themselves even weaker to sunlight as a flaw, or spec to have more resilience to sunlight's effects on them. Alternately some flaws might exist as 0-point traits, for example a daywalker vampire that has it's sun/moon cycle reversed. This is important as some players in different timezones might be forced to generally play during the day cycle, etc.
I'd like to ask players to post any thematically appropriate (supernatural) flaws/advantages ideas in the following format:
Flaw Name: Name the concept
Class Restrictions: tag classes it would not be appropriate for or that should have restrictions on it's severity, if any,
Effect: describe the mechanical effect on the player
Estimate Frequency/Potency: give a guess at how often this will come up and how it will affect the player such as- frequency: rare, minor, moderate, often, potency: minor, moderate, major.
Bear in mind:
1) if something is rare + minor it probably isn't worth points.
2) cosmetics should have no ties to systems, so cosmetic flaws don't count, it needs a mechanical disadvantage.
3) if it affects RP only, that's flavor and doesn't present a necessary mechanical disadvantage, mechanical disadvantage is a must because the reward is additional mechanical advantage.
4) if a disadvantage prevents a particular class from functioning properly that could prompt the class is revoked. As an example: the flaw is that the player is cursed in graveyards with weakness. In this case, it might be thematically appropriate to eliminate this for ghouls beyond .5 points while everyone else could ramp this up to 1 since ghouls generally thematically spend a lot of time in graveyards as their typical homes.
*Respec side note:
This would assume that if we are estimating a 100 level system characters get a free respec token at major benchmarks like 30, 60 and 100 unless otherwise stated (not that my outlines are beyond suggestion but for example I suggested because of their diversity and mercurial nature vampires could respec more frequently).
Additionally at levels 20, 40 and 80 players gain an additional build swap that they can swap to freely while in a player hub, though flaws are locked as is for these unless a respect token is used which resets all builds (because flaws taken might affect total points and flaws are locked in the first build that has any flaws taken. Flaws also can't be added without a respect token, which has a moderate material component and gold scaling cost.
Additional respecs can also be performed with a scaling material and in game (non premium) currency cost at any major player hub. Additional tokens would also be handed out to a class that sees any major balance shift (anything more than a minor balance tweak, alternately, if it's big enough to break a build it gets a token), or if a content update drastically changes how the game is played every character gets a token because the system has been hardline changed that will alter how people fundamentally play the game (say like a full melee rework, or a rework to how essence works at a core level, etc.).
This allows a pretty fair system so that respeccing can be done thoughtfully but not willy nilly whenever you feel like it without an associated cost.
That said, if such a system is to be used (not necessarily my outlines, just the system concept), I think having select flaws available to each class is a great way to develop a character as the best heroes, anti heroes and villains are usually best defined by their flaws.
I'd like to first ask that flaws be included in such a way that they can award additional points, up to 2 at start of game (assuming typical potency of point buys), by taking flaws that award points based on severity and frequency. levels of flaws do not necessarily equal a full point, you might see flaws that offer .1 points, or any interval of tenths of a point per level of the flaw (though not all flaws should have scaling levels necessarily). This allows that players could take lesser extreme versions of several flaws, or pile up on 1 point flaws, etc.
Flaws are an optional step in character creation and are considered an advanced feature. As such a prompt appears at the end of creation to select possible flaws that says optional and has an option to skip. Flaws can only be taken at creation or during a respec*
Players can take more flaws than 2 points worth (or amounts that don't total to 1 or 2 points exactly) but they don't receive additional points beyond 2. generating something other than 1 or 2 points prompts a warning that points are always rounded down to the nearest whole point (0, 1, 2) up to a maximum of two and they currently have X points. Takeing a flaw that exceeds two points also prompts this and additionally prompts that flaw points are capped at 2. This allows players to select flaws just for the enjoyment/challenge of it or RP purposes, while also capping the maximum potential out of the gate.
Alternately current weaknesses balanced around can be generally specc'd into for points to reduce flaws inherently present in a class, making the character more potent, but a flaw/enhancement binary choice makes the other mutually exclusive to that character. For example: Vampires are weak in direct sunlight. They can spec to make themselves even weaker to sunlight as a flaw, or spec to have more resilience to sunlight's effects on them. Alternately some flaws might exist as 0-point traits, for example a daywalker vampire that has it's sun/moon cycle reversed. This is important as some players in different timezones might be forced to generally play during the day cycle, etc.
I'd like to ask players to post any thematically appropriate (supernatural) flaws/advantages ideas in the following format:
Flaw Name: Name the concept
Class Restrictions: tag classes it would not be appropriate for or that should have restrictions on it's severity, if any,
Effect: describe the mechanical effect on the player
Estimate Frequency/Potency: give a guess at how often this will come up and how it will affect the player such as- frequency: rare, minor, moderate, often, potency: minor, moderate, major.
Bear in mind:
1) if something is rare + minor it probably isn't worth points.
2) cosmetics should have no ties to systems, so cosmetic flaws don't count, it needs a mechanical disadvantage.
3) if it affects RP only, that's flavor and doesn't present a necessary mechanical disadvantage, mechanical disadvantage is a must because the reward is additional mechanical advantage.
4) if a disadvantage prevents a particular class from functioning properly that could prompt the class is revoked. As an example: the flaw is that the player is cursed in graveyards with weakness. In this case, it might be thematically appropriate to eliminate this for ghouls beyond .5 points while everyone else could ramp this up to 1 since ghouls generally thematically spend a lot of time in graveyards as their typical homes.
*Respec side note:
This would assume that if we are estimating a 100 level system characters get a free respec token at major benchmarks like 30, 60 and 100 unless otherwise stated (not that my outlines are beyond suggestion but for example I suggested because of their diversity and mercurial nature vampires could respec more frequently).
Additionally at levels 20, 40 and 80 players gain an additional build swap that they can swap to freely while in a player hub, though flaws are locked as is for these unless a respect token is used which resets all builds (because flaws taken might affect total points and flaws are locked in the first build that has any flaws taken. Flaws also can't be added without a respect token, which has a moderate material component and gold scaling cost.
Additional respecs can also be performed with a scaling material and in game (non premium) currency cost at any major player hub. Additional tokens would also be handed out to a class that sees any major balance shift (anything more than a minor balance tweak, alternately, if it's big enough to break a build it gets a token), or if a content update drastically changes how the game is played every character gets a token because the system has been hardline changed that will alter how people fundamentally play the game (say like a full melee rework, or a rework to how essence works at a core level, etc.).
This allows a pretty fair system so that respeccing can be done thoughtfully but not willy nilly whenever you feel like it without an associated cost.
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