Ars Arcanum

I saw that title there in the stuff that's new in the lab and I thought, "Huh? New labrat. Cool title for his game. Done a lot of work so far. Hey, this is starting to sound fun." and then

No attachments.

Fun will have to wait.

Well, I'll be waiting to see what your game does, and what it doesn't do yet, and help you kick around ideas.

I love mechanics discussion, especially in the stage before they've been decided upond. Here's some things to consider.

1) How combat orientated is your setting? If it's very combat orientated you might want to thing of mechanics that revolve around that, so that all characters are at least competant in combat situations, whilst their other skills define out of combat capabilities (example: DnD.) If combat plays an equal roll or second fiddle to other activities like social interaction, investigation or whatever else you can think of, perhaps create a skill based mechanic in which players would have to decide to be good at fighting or good at other skills, maybe trying to strike a compromise between the two (example White Wolf.)

2) How gritty is your setting? This may seem like an odd question, but a gritty setting can be enhanced by gritty mechanics. The darker the setting, the more easily a character should be able to get hurt and the consequences of these injuries should be greater. Mechanics reflect this by having high damage/low resistance stats and realistic healing times.

3) What are the player characters? Are they epic heroes, average men who have been thrust into something greater than themselves? This is important for finding your balance whilst devising character creation mechanics. Remember characters can be epically powerful but still be fragile in a grim setting (take old Vampire for example, the characters can be powerful beyond belief but carelessness in combat can still lead to a stake through the heart, one shot and your down and out.)

4) Ease of use. AFter taking everything into account, you've probably got system ideas in your head. Take that, write everything down and then scrap anything that would take more than one game session to get the hang off. Yes a game can be complicated with many rules/powers/technicalities, but the base system should never be hard to grasp. The saying 'easy to learn, difficult to master' is one to keep in might when devising mechanics.

Whooowee, I've run away with a post again. Ah well I hope this is helpful. I might gather notes on whatever this discussion yeilds and make a rough guide to mechanics creation (not that I'm a master in any form) for any others users new and old.
____________________________________________________________
Don't steal... The Government hates competition.