The ideas keep coming. The heroic adventure game now has a name: A Wilder World, or AWW, because every fantasy roleplaying game needs a catchy acronym.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…

Formerly I was thinking of just calling it Heroic Adventure Game, so that people could call it HAG… but as the idea morphed from making a generic/modular fantasy game to making something actually interesting, that seemed less and less compelling.

What shifted me from thinking about a generic adventure game to a more colorful one was coming up with races. I started with what has been established as the “iconic” fantasy races, but I started taking them in different directions from their roots in order to differentiate them from D&D and other fantasy games.

For instance, while I love the Eladrin and Gnome designs in D&D for making “fey races” actually mean something, I obviously didn’t want to make a race of teleporting elves… so I decided to make the signature ability of Elves being the ability to put on a glamour. This decision led me to the interesting idea of making it so that the “High Elf/Wood Elf” divide exists purely in the mind of common human folk who have seen elves in both their somewhat short, rustic-looking natural appearance and the tall, haughty, dazzlingly beautiful glamour form.

This decision along with other interpretations of races began to suggest the shape of a world, especially as I started reaching out to add other archetypes that D&D had missed.

One of the original (though it owes as much intellectual debt to the same lender as our now-traditional Elves and Dwarves do) races I came up with is briefly detailed below. I’ve left out the stat minutiae, as it’s not anything like finalized and would require more explanation.

The Exemplar Talent is not something possessed by every member of the race… it’s a Talent selection that exists only for the race in question. Someone who takes it

Ancients

Magic flows freely around the edges of the Wilder World, wrapping around it like the ocean encircles an island. From time to time, a consciousness that inhabits this vast ocean will grow curious or bored and put on mortal flesh for a few years or a few eons. The forms these timeless beings adopt invariably reflect their nature, appearing to be quite old but retaining the spryness and energy of youth.

The wise old hermit who lives on top of the mountain, the wandering meddler with the wide-brimmed hat and the staff, and the stoop-backed crone who is said to haunt the woods all may be such spirits made flesh.

Luminous Being: When an Ancient is reduced to 0 HP, they may choose to cast off their damaged flesh, vanishing back into the ether from whence they came. This can be done even if the wound would otherwise have been fatal, but in any case it must be done when HP first drops below 1. An Ancient who makes the decision to linger in hopes of being healed or making a recovery is trapped in the flesh and in danger of dying with it.

An Ancient who vanishes in such a fashion may re-enter the mortal world at any point up to twenty-four hours later, reappearing either at the place that holds the fondest attraction for them in the mortal world (i.e., home) or in the presence of a person who means a great deal to them and longs for their presence… for example, a loved one or a fellow adventurer who really wishes they had their semi-immortal wizardy friend back before they run into something really nasty.

Once an Ancient has returned to the land of the living in this fashion, they cannot do so again unless their spirit is guided back using the same means that mortals can sometimes make use of to recall their departed friends. The vanished Ancient is diffusely omnipresent, so a resurrection ritual can be done anywhere.

As an alternative to returning or resurrection, a vanished Ancient can be remade as a Spirit Being. The “new” character has the knowledge and memories and personality of the “old” character, as they are both one and the same. The Spirit Being character should be of the same level that any new character rolled up for the game would be, and can either use the same Talents and Abilities or new ones. Whether the Spirit Being can ever again resume flesh as an Ancient again depends entirely on the GM’s fondness for revolving doors.

Ancient Aura: Once per turn the Ancient may spend an action to radiate an aura. By doing this every turn, the Ancient can maintain the aura as a continual presence. The aura either helps allies or hinders enemies, depending on its type. At level one, the Ancient can radiate one type of Aura. Other types are gained at various experience levels.

Some examples of the choices:

Aura of Calm: Within the aura, clear heads prevail. This aura can be used to mitigate angry responses (from a diplomatic faux pas, for instance). In combat, allies within three squares who have not yet attacked during the combat gain a +3 to all defenses. Allies who have attacked but do not attack on their turn can gain a +1 to defenses until the start of their next turn.

Aura of Flame: Within the aura, allies are warmed and natural fire is protected from the wind and rain. In combat, any normal damage suffered by enemies within three squares becomes fire damage.

Aura of Majesty: In combat, any hostile action against the Ancient by an enemy within three squares who has not been attacked by the Ancient since its last turn takes a penalty of -3 if the enemy is adjacent, -2 if the enemy is two squares away, and -1 if the enemy is three squares away.

Ancient Exemplar Talent: Because an Ancient’s body is formed of their spirit and that spirit is magic, Ancient Exemplars enjoy a certain flexibility that mortal races don’t. When making a melee attack, casting a Spell, or using an Invocation, Ancients can use the highest number from among their Body, Spirit, and Magic scores in place of any of the other three. For all other purposes, the attributes retain their separate uses. Taking the Ancient Exemplar Talent qualifies you for Natural, Holy, and Magical Abilities.

Note: “Spirit Being” is another race that can be used to represent a ghost or something like the 4E Shaman’s Spirit Companion… a spirit with visible and somewhat substantial presence. In theory, any character that dies could be remade as a Spirit Being, especially if they have some great task to fulfill that would keep them around. It just seems like a particularly obvious transition for an Ancient.

The nebulous (less nebulous now, especially after a somewhat connection-impaired Skype conversation with Gamingdragon) roleplaying game for which I conceived of the d12 mechanic I described below didn’t actually start with a combat mechanic… it started with some thoughts on character generation.

Of all the things I didn’t like about 4E at first glance, Rangers and Rogues stood out quite a bit… Rangers especially. Rogues hadn’t been called “Thieves” since two and a half editions before, and at least Rogues had numerous utility and attack powers that tied into the old school “Thief Skills”, but it bugged me that they and to a greater extent Rangers were now defined entirely by fighting styles.

Sure, all Rangers were trained in one of the two environment/survival skills, and Rangers could pick a small amount of utility powers that fit the wise/cranky mentor archetype, but the essence of a Ranger had been altered from any sort of connection to nature to “uncommonly good with a bow” or “with apologies to R.A. Salvatore“. There was no room for a character who’s a peerless tracker and outdoor survival expert but who uses a longsword and a shield.

Of course, there sort of is: make a Fighter, take training in Nature. The Background system makes this easier, as you don’t even have to spend a feat: declare that your character grew up in the forest and now you can take Nature as a class skill. Oh, yeah, you still need Perception for tracking. Well, take Perception off your Background and then take Warrior of the Wild feat. Fighters can already get plenty of synergy from a decent Wisdom, so it’s not like you’re going to suck at these skills, and now that you’ve got Warrior of the Wild you can scoop up any Ranger feats or Paragon Paths that help round out your character.

Of course, that all goes back to the point I’ve made before, that 4E lets you make a wider array of characters than a first glance reveals, though sometimes it’s a matter of sticking to your concept and treating the class names as metagame labels. If your concept of a Ranger is more like Beorn than Aragorn and you miss the nature spells, play a Druid and call yourself a Ranger.

Hybrid rules compound the choices and make actual class names matter less.

But at first, this really bothered me… and even after I got my head around it, I was still sort of philosophical about it. Prior to falling in love with 4E, I was a fan of classless systems… point-based ones like GURPS. With a flexible enough mind and a flexible enough GM, you could make a GURPS character who can do all the neat stuff that a 4E Wizard or Warlock or Warden or Druid or Swordmage can do, and a lot of other stuff besides. But it takes longer to make characters in a free form system like GURPS, and with the cool stuff not spelled out or defined for you… well, I never would have thought to make someone quite like the Warden in a fantasy setting, myself, but now that I’ve seen the concept I’m intrigued by it. Likewise the Swordmage… I mean, the basic idea of someone who channels magic through a sword is pretty obvious, but the specific execution…

It’s nice having pre-made things, is my point.

It’s also way easier to get a whole group of people moving on D&D characters, and if they’re not already fully conversant with the system it’s easier for them to understand what they can do in terms of making a character and what that character can then do in the game.

So at some point, before the Hybrid rules were out, I started thinking about ways to split the difference, and after sitting down and thinking about all the different things that “Ranger” and “Paladin” can embody, I came up with the idea of a game system where you would pick three “paths” (as I called them at that point) that would be roughly analogous to D&D 4E’s Class Features, and these would be attached to ability trees like the class power levels in 4E.

Over time of bouncing around in my head, this basic idea morphed quite a bit. Paths became Talents (it always bothered me, the idea that you were moving on three separate paths at once.)

The ability-trees-tied-to-talents changed quite a bit, becoming a list of powers in three tiers and relating to the three types of Talents instead of directly depending on specific ones. The three types being Natural, Magic, and Holy (yes, my roots are showing there, but it’s a natural and sensible division… D&D is the first fantasy roleplaying game, and the original three classes were Fighting Man, Magic-User, and Cleric).

If you have any Natural Talents, you can choose Natural Maneuvers for your Active Abilities. If you have any Magic Talents, you can choose Magic Spells for your Active Abilities. If you have any Holy Talents, you can choose Holy Invocations for your Active Abilities.

I’ve broken from D&D 4E’s idea that all powers use the same mechanics regardless of the source… using Spells are one step more complicated than using Maneuvers, and Invocations are simpler than both of them.

I started compiling lists of Talents and Active Abilities (and Passive Abilities, analogous to D&D’s feats… apart from not wanting to bite D&D’s naming style, the name “feat” bothers me since so few of them in 4E are actually things that you accomplish/do), first as hypothetical “this would be a good way to represent archetype x” and “this would be a good thing to have”, and then with actual tentative mechanical descriptions. My post about a Maneuvers system for D&D actually fed into this quite a bit. A lot of what I compiled for that was around the general power level I’d want for Simple Maneuvers, Spells, and Invocations.

If you wanted to make a sword-and-board fighter whose abilities all come from skill and strength of arm and equipment, you could take the very simple and straightforward Armor Talent, Weapon Talent, and Shield Talent. If you don’t picture your character using heavy armor and giant shields, you could trade those talents for Mobile Combat Talent and Defensive Fighter Talent, to make a character who’s more about maneuvering and parrying/dodging. You could trade any one of those Talents for a bit of magical flavor or divine favor… and while Armor, Shield, and Weapon Talent all give appreciable bonuses to using those types of equipment, they aren’t prerequisites for anything, so if you want to make a holy warrior and it takes more than one Holy Talent to fit your vision, that doesn’t mean you can’t also use a sword and heavy armor.

Each race in the game has a main special ability that’s broadly equal to a Talent (except Humans, who get to pick a fourth one) plus some small and flavorful bonuses, and an optional Racial Exemplar (Elven Exemplar, Dwarven Exemplar) Talent that turns their vestigial bonuses into something more substantial if they choose to take it. Just as with D&D 4E plethora of racial feats, there will also be racial-linked Passive Abilities you can pick to represent that your racial abilities are more pronounced or better developed.

You would gain more Talents as you gain in experience, not every level but at regular intervals. As I currently see it, you’d eventually end up with 3 more than you started with… the same number I originally arrived at for what it takes to bring a decent character concept/archetype to life. Thus, you can truly “doubleclass” if you want, having your sword and board fighter turn into a competent wizard. Or you can develop your original concept further. Or you can go for a total jack-of-many-trades.

Active Abilities, as I previously said, fall into three tiers, which I’m dubbing Simple, Complex, and Heroic. They are roughly analogous to D&D’s At-Will, Encounter, and Daily Powers, though with different conditions on their use, especially for Heroic ones vs. Daily Powers. You start out by picking 3/2/1, and you do gain more of each of them as you level. Under the current scheme I see, the eventual total you’ll have is 6/12/6. You gain new Complex Abilities faster because you pull them out a lot more often than you will Heroic abilities, and I see the fact that they have more limited uses (both in the sense that you can use them less frequently and that more of them are situational) compared to Simples meaning that a large number won’t be overwhelming or wasted because you keep using the same one or two over and over again.

The accumulation of Active Abilities and the ability to use Complex and Heroic ones more often would be a large part of your character’s power growth as you gain in experience… the math of the system won’t change all that much, but your character will be able to do more stuff more often.

Then there are the Passive Abilities, which are like 4E’s feats, and just like them, they exist to shade in your character a little bit more… modify an ability in a particular direction, add a bit of flavor, give you a small bonus in line with your chosen concept. They can help add “resolution” to your Talent choices.

The weakness in this system is the number of choices you have to make… that’s a strength for some people, of course, but I’m sure it’ll seem daunting to some when it’s all laid out, especially as this hasn’t even gotten into non-combat stuff, or the specifics of attributes (though they’re pretty simple.) After discussing it with Gamingdragon, though, I think that the essentials are pretty easy to grasp, my long-winded rambling notwithstanding. I further think that when it’s all laid out in an organized fashion, the choices you make at each step will help suggest where to go next… your mix of Talent types will limit which Abilities you look at, and further they’ll help suggest certain ones. Any distribution of this system would also include a guide to making the common fantasy archetypes, giving pre-generated characters that could easily be customized.

So, I’ve had a few rough ideas for a roleplaying game system bouncing around in my head pretty much ever since I got into 4E, and it’s starting to sort of come together in a somewhat nebulous way.

See, I love 4E, but the more I become aware of what it can do, the more I’m also aware of what it’s not well-suited for. Game design decisions, even good ones, always involve giving something up.

Games like GURPS and Palladium have “active defense” rules that allow you to attempt parries and dodges. Something like that could be slotted into 4E’s action economy with only a little fiddling, but they’d either have to be a static bonus (and then they’d step on the territory of Total Defense) or they’d add more rolling to the game, conflicting with its design goals.

While I like giving the defender a chance to become more involved with defense, I also like 4E’s economy of dice. The fewer rolls it takes to get through a turn, the better.

So here’s what’s been coming together in my head, for a basic attack roll mechanic.

First, attacks use a d12. Why d12? Because I like the random number spread better than that of any of the more obvious choices. 4E has shown me the beauty of small modifiers, but a +1 is somewhat less small on a d12 than a d20. This would be even more true on a d10, but two more potential results really makes a difference in terms of making a decent spread of hit and miss chances.

Second, the attacks follow a similar model to 4E’s d20 system, in that you roll and you add your modifiers and higher is better. The target numbers for the attack would tend to live on the upper end of the random number scale.

In fact, you’d need a modified roll higher than 12 to hit most targets, but except in extremely adverse conditions, you’d always be adding something to the roll. A competent fighter type attacking an averagely protected enemy type would have a little under a fifty percent chance of hitting, about the same as in 4E.

If the attack would hit, the target can make a defensive action. Every characters get one defensive action per round by default. Some can get more. The defensive action is rolled much like an attack: roll and add your modifiers, but the target number is the attacker’s total hit roll. If you beat or tie it, the attack is negated.

Standard defense actions would be parry and dodge. They’d each use different modifiers, and each have different requirements for use. (I.e., you can’t parry a hurled rock, but you can dodge it.) Some characters would have more specific or fancy defensive actions they could take, some of them being limited use and having extra effects if they succeed, but anybody could dodge or parry at least once per round.

So, anyway, that’s a potential extra roll for every attack. Following the logic that more rolls = more bad, we should try to take a roll away from somewhere else. The obvious place? Damage. But having fixed damage from attacks is neither realistic nor interesting. We need some variability.

My first thought was to simply base the damage done on the amount by which the attack roll succeeded. We already have that value, after all, so might as well use it… and this would allow the more skilled opponents to do more damage with their attacks.

This is actually a design goal of mine, making damage based mostly or entirely on attacker’s skill… a dagger is not actually less deadly than a halberd. The advantage of the halberd is largely in positioning. You can apply more force with a big lever weapon, but you can puncture organs and sever arteries with a knife.

But after thinking about it, I realized this could lead to game-breaking balance problems. If damage was based on how much you beat the target number by, then people could stack hit bonuses onto their characters and also increase damage. It would make it more complicated to track attacks that gain a hit bonus in exchange for a damage penalty, or vice versa.

So, finally, I came up with this: roll the attack, and if it hits, take the raw die roll (1 to 12) and use that as the Damage Die. Damage Die measures the magnitude of the hit, and lower is better. Why lower and not higher? Because if you manage to hit an opponent with a roll of 3, you’re either damned good or they’re really, really exposed and vulnerable.

Here’s the basic table I have in mind:

Those numbers can be called “Hit Points” or “Wounds” or “Wound Points”. I prefer HP just because they’re familiar, but obviously, this game would use a much different scale than something like D&D. A starting character might have between 7 and 12 HP, depending on squishiness.

That’s the basic mechanic. New players would probably have to consult the Damage Die chart every time they rolled, which would slow things down, though I think eventually they’d get it down.

With this mechanic, damage modifiers (rarely more than 1, but they can stack to a maximum of +3 or -3) would be expressed in terms of Damage Die Bonus and Damage Die Penalty, for clarity, with no positive or negative symbol.

If you have a Damage Die Bonus (as from a weapon talent-style ability), you lower the Damage Die because lower’s good for you and if you have a Damage Die Penalty (the target’s wearing heavy armor) you raise the Damage Die. Results higher than 12 still do no damage, results lower than 1 increase the damage by 1 for each point below, to a maximum of 8 points of damage.

The spread of numbers on the chart means that a Damage Die Bonus of 1 will do an extra point of damage half the time and a Damage Die Penalty of 1 will take away one point of damage slightly less often.

If an attack has a secondary effect that’s triggered on a hit, a hit that does no damage still counts. If it’s triggered by doing damage, it isn’t.

I’m not good at laying simple things out simply on my first try, so I’m sure that explanation’s more convoluted than needs to be. I think it would play out pretty well and pretty quickly, though.

And then you can get into the fun stuff. A lot of abilities in this game could manipulate the die roll. These things would be limited use/situation-dependent like many powers in D&D 4E, for purposes of both game balance and game speed.

For example, an ability equivalent to a Striker extra damage power from D&D might let you re-roll the Damage Die, taking the second result even if it wouldn’t have hit and doubling the damage if you manage to roll the exact same result.

A “lucky shot” ability could let you invert a low die roll, so that a 1 becomes a 12, a 2 becomes a 11, and so on, turning a wild miss into a mild hit.

A “mighty blow” power that trades damage for accuracy would lower the raw roll, for both hit and damage purposes. A “careful attack” one would do the opposite.