Psychochild's Blog

So, I lied, but only a little bit. I have been getting into EverQuest 2 lately. But, as I said, it wasn't the new content sucking me in, but the old content.

Turns out, it's the really old content that's been keeping me playing.
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This is an advancement system I've worked up. I figured that since I bellyache about innovation and change, I might as well show off some of what I would like to see.

I present a design for advancement in a fantasy RPG based loosely on the four classical (Greek) elements. The goal is to give a simplified system that could be used in a typical fantasy RPG without having to deal with old standbys like armor class, etc.
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The multi-role (aka "hybrid") class is often looked at as an aberration in MMOs. One character able to fill multiple roles has the problem of being properly balanced against other classes. Make a hybrid class too strong and specialists feel left out. Make the hybrid class too weak and the hybrids feel like they have no place in the game. Trying to balance things properly is very difficult for an average designer to do.

Let's take a look at some hybrid class designs and how they have worked out in games.
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I tend to mention Meridian 59 mostly in passing on here. But, in the current installment of the Interesting Mechanics series, I want to point out one of the better mechanics in M59: the mana nodes. This fits into a larger design pattern I like to call exploration-based rewards.
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I wanted to talk a bit about one of the more interesting mechanics in LotRO: Dread and Hope. This is perhaps one of the more interesting mechanics the game has to offer above and beyond the typical DIKU fare. Since I slammed the game a bit for sticking a bit too close to "safe" mechanics, I figured I'd take some time to point out one of the original and interesting bits.
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Crafting is an interesting topic in games. In a previous post, I went into depth about how a typical crafting system works in a game. For this article, I want to focus on the interactive crafting system found in EverQuest 2.
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I want to do some analysis of interesting game mechanics. I think often developers don't really look at game mechanics to really understand them; often it's, "Hey, that's cool, let's copy it!"

For this installment, I want to look at non-mana resources for characters.
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One of the critiques against online games is that there is no innovation. Although games do have variety between them, some design show a lack of originality. Take spells, for example. How many times do you see the same old thing? A spells organized by some variation of the classical elements which consume spell points to cast.

To show that alternatives can exist, I though I'd share a system I created for an unpublished barbarian-themed paper RPG.
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