Thread replies: 6
Thread images: 2
Thread images: 2
File: thread picture.jpg (206KB, 821x843px) Image search:
[Google]
206KB, 821x843px
So I'm sort of working on a homebrew to play with some friends, and I was wondering if people would be willing to weigh in on something I'm having trouble deciding.
So the homebrew works on a profession system, where you take a few levels (probably five) in one profession, which determines your class skills (as standard for d20), abilities and ability score increases for those five levels (but your feats are left free). Once you're done with a profession, you can nominate a 'trained' skill that your character will always have as a class skill, regardless of profession, to create a bit of a sense of continuation between professions.
My issue is that I'm not sure which approach to now go for: a lot of professions with some overlap between them (think WHFRP - or at least early versions), as they'd allow for people to be sure that they'd have a profession that reasonably lines up with what they had before (so they wouldn't have to risk wasting skill points, for example, if they can only take a skill for five levels), and thus make sure people can always make a concept that appeals to them. However, I'm worried that this would take some of the necessity of hard choices out of picking a profession, and then also thinking of enough professions that fit the setting and that can be at least somewhat distinct from each other.
The other option would be to have fewer professions that are all much more distinct from each other (I guess like d20 modern classes?), which would allow each one to feel unique and add some gravitas to the decision, but I'm worried that, even with the concept of trained skills it might just needlessly restrict character design and force people into same-y combinations to avoid wasteful careers (such as putting points into a skill in one profession that are then not class-skills in another).
[1/2]
>>
So as a possibility for improving the second one, I thought that there could be an option to repeat a profession but 'seasoned' (could still be done with the other one - especially for magic classes), wherein the benefits of the profession are improved over the next five levels, thus allowing for more unified concepts. However, this might just lead people to always taking seasoned professions and limiting the variety, which is sort of the opposite of what I wanted for this homebrew. I also thought of a feat to allow people to take a skill as a class skill regardless of profession, but then I'm not sure if that'd be a waste of a feat and lead people not to take it, still restricting variety.
So I've thought about both a bit, and the fact that I've had to do a lot of patching for the d20 modern-esque way suggests that I'd be better off going closer to the other one. I'm not planning on fully emulating either, and I'm sure there's a happy medium somewhere, I'm just not sure in which way it lies.
Of course, I know /tg/ isn't full of game design experts, but as it's full of gamers, I thought I'd ask - which one would you prefer to play?
[2/2]
>>
That lady has some nice tits.
I have nothing to add.
>>
>>51461609
They're not all that, mate
>>
Grab my bump, OP
>>
File: 1418455332099.png (2MB, 898x1061px) Image search:
[Google]
2MB, 898x1061px
I'm nowhere near a rules expert, but here's my two cents:
The latter option is the one that most appeals to me. It feels like an interesting use of the profession system, in a way that still feels somewhat focused like a traditional class-based system, but with a lot more customization. A little restriction isn't bad, and can help provide focus, and since it's a homebrew you can point your players to the seasoned rule and encourage them to play around with it a little. If you play your cards right, there will at least be a couple of combinations that are regularly chosen even if a few end up not being high on the players' lists, and I think it's more likely than only one combination ever being chosen, as long as you give each 'path' its distinct advantages or perks.
The former option is not bad, I want to make that clear. But to me, it feels vague, and would require a lot of work on the part of the player as much as the GM in order to make the correct choices, and like you mentioned you'd have to think of a lot of professions and make them all work in the setting.
Thread posts: 6
Thread images: 2
Thread images: 2