Saturday 10 May 2008

A first attempt at Skills

The last few days I've been adding and refining skills and their effect upon creatures (of which a player is the prime example):



The skill model I've chosen is a bastardization of D&D, Angband and Dungeon Crawl, whilst influenced heavily by World of Warcraft and a sprinkling of Everquest 2 on top. Of course, since this is the first draft (and is completely different from the original Kharne), this may turn out to be horribly flawed and may need changing.

Characters have six primarily attributes: Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Resolve and Charisma. These operate in a similar fashion to the D&D versions. Then characters have skills. These can be broken down into Fighting, Defense, Subterfuge and Magic categories. From a character's attributes and skills, all other abilities are derived (most of these in a non-linear fashion). The combat related ones are:

Evasion: Like in Crawl, Evasion is probably one of the two most important abilities. It operates in the same fashion as in Crawl, allowing a character to dodge a blow completely, but the derivation is polynomial, and it is affected by a combination of Dexterity, Defense, Armour Skill, Type of Armour Worn, and other factors (yes, I have an unhealthy fetish for Excel):



Armour: This is the character's capacity to absorb damage if he or she gets hit. This is a function of both the Armour Class of individual items and his or her skill with those types of armour.

Speed: Currently a simple linear relationship between the amount a character carries and how fast he/she can move.

Accuracy: In the old D&D days, this would be known as a "to-hit bonus" and it operates in a similar fashion. Is a function of Weapon Skill and Agility.

Damage: Bonus Damage - does exactly what it says on the tin.

Blocking: This is the chance to block the blow completely. This is different from Armour in that even if the blow's damage is so high, it cannot be absorbed, there is still a small chance it can be blocked.

Deflection: I want Kharne to have critical hits. Like the Defense skill in World of Warcraft, Deflection affects the chance of being crit.

There are two other derived stats: HP and MP, which are Health Points and Mana Points. These are a function of Race, Class, Endurance and Intelligence/Magic respectively.

All of these abilities and attributes can be modified by items (both positively and adversely in the case of cursed items). Here's a sample of some of the modifiers items can have:



The resolution mechanic is the good old D20:

Random Dice Roll + Positive Modifiers - Negative Modifiers = Some Target Number.

So there you have it, the first attempt at a rssolution/skill system. It is horribly derivative, but I think it will work adequately, with enough nuance to provide an additional element of gameplay.

Of course, I fully expect this all to completely change before Kharne is released!




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