Kin
Kin is a game swords, magic and shamanitic spirits. In those respects it is like any other fantasy game, but this is my first (technically second but I don't think Victoriana is legit anymore.) In Kin all of the characters are linked in that they share their souls with a animal spirit.
Each spirit bestows upon them differant bonuses, and some penalties. As the characters advance so to do their respective spirits, this means that the character will actually get weaker in some aspects but stronger (example a character imbued with a bat spirit will sprout wings and pointed teeth etc but will also become frail and begin to loase their eyesight) and thus players will need to decide how much free reign they allow their spirits when levelling up.
As you have probably guessed the characters race is basically what animal spirit they are attuned to, their Kin. They will also have a conventional class which will grant skills and other special abilities.
So far I am intending to include the following Kins:
Bat, Bear, Cat, Wolf, Snake, Fox, Owl, Weasel, Hedgehog (go sonic!) and Boar.
Classes will revolve around a combination of combat skills, rogue skills, several magic skills and social skills, though I am not entirely sure what classes there shall be and am in two minds over whether I should scrap the class system altogether.
I intend to use a system based on a 4D6 system where characters will have to roll under their skill on 4D6 to succeed (example if a character's weapon skill is 12 then they will have to roll twelve or less on 4D6)
Unless somebody is going to inform me that this game has already been made or wishes to point out a better system to use (as I'm sure there is one and the aforementioned 4D6 system was devised in less the 40 seconds.) At this stage I'm open to any creative suggestions.
Setting
I'm intending mainly for there to be a feudal type of setting were some Kin are considered of a higher class (such as Cats, Snakes and Owls) while the others are of the peasant masses. I was considering having so that it is set in the New World, as when the English settled in America,so that way there can still be an established society with lords and peasantry but also the great expanses of wilderness and mystery so that if the Storyteller wishes the game could be one of exploration and wilderness trudging rather than social based.
Thanks for your ideas and considering your percentages I will devise a new system today, as the 4D6 system obviously does not leave much room for character advancement.
The only critique of 4d6 is that it's kind of a steep bell curve
- die result or less
- Percentage
- 4
- <1%
- 5
- <1%
- 6
- 1%
- 7
- 3%
- 8
- 5%
- 9
- 10%
- 10
- 16%
- 11
- 24%
- 12
- 34%
- 13
- 44%
- 14
- 56%
- 15
- 66%
- 16
- 76%
- 17
- 84%
- 18
- 90%
- 19
- 95%
- 20
- 97%
- 21
- 99%
- 22
- >99%
- 23
- >99%
- 24
- 100%
So if a basically competent stat starts at 8 to 11, players will advance to roughly 19 before they feel like further advancement isn't worth it, except to suck up penalties.
Also, I was wondering, would all characters in the stting have animal kin, or just some? Would people inherit their animal kin? Would the totem animal choose the chararcter? You could mix and match, like Exalted, some chosen, some inheritied. I would have fun imagining that the animal on a lord's crest means more than just a picture. That animal is the source of much of the lord's power.
New world eh? Would there be any animal kin that are strictly indigenous? We don't have hedgehogs here in America, but we do have porcupines.
System
I've removed the 4D6 system in favour for a two dice skill/attribute system. The game will use D4, D6, D8, D10 & D12, with D8 being an average score. Each character will have their skill die and ability die to make up the total amount of dice a character rolls. For example a character with average archery ability would have D8 co-ordination and D8 archery and to hit a average target the difficulty would be between 8 and 10.
I will have the maximum skill level 2D12 2D8(so I character could have D12 D8 in their attribute and D12 D8 in their skill.)The characters will have five attributes (Spirit, Mental, Social, Co-ordination and Physical) in which they will start wth a D4, D6, D8, D8 & D10 in but the lowest and highest scores (D4 and D10) are predetermined by their Kin.
As for whether everyone will be a Kin I have decided that only around 1 in 20 people will be blessed in this manner. Kinship is hereditory but recessive. As I said some Kin are considered purely nobleblooded but even commoner Kin still rise to the very top/bottom of commoner/noble society.
The Kin options given for characters are invasive Kin in the New World and conflicts with a variety of indigenous Kin could be the basis for story line.
I have also changed some of the Kin as a few were too similair stats wise. So the new list of races is:
Bat, Bear, Cat, Catfish(!), Hedgehog, Owl, Snake and Wolf.
Oh and Magic will be a definate part of the game but the bit I will be having the most trouble with! Will have developed character creation and probably combat rules by midnight on monday.
Go ahead and scrap classes.
Even make all the skills available to each type of kin, but give each type of kin skill sympathies, and skill antipathies. Sympathetic skills cost less, and antipathic skills cost more.
That way the bat kin clans can be crap at farming and hand to hand, but excellent at harpoons or scrying.
This way you can kind of encourage players to create characters that fit an idea of different classes, but still let them the freedom to create unique characters that have skills that they would traditionally be bad at. They just have to pay more for them. Like normally wizards are owl kin and alchemists are snake kin, but if you want to create a weasel kin wizard you can, but you have to spend the extra points.
I also think that whenever a character levels up he can take a certain ability but he has to then take the weakness. Maybe each level will have more than one set of ability/weakness pairs, and the player can choose which ones he wants. If the player wants, he can skip all the abilities to keep his character free of weaknesses.
On 4d6, you have a 44 percent chance of getting 13 or less, and 56 percent chance of getting 14 or less.
Also, post more information about the setting. So far it doesn't sound like a game that's already been made.