I have an idea for a D&D clone. Conceptually the game would be the class structure and general direction where you go on war campaigns, dungeon diving, and grand adventures. But, the classes would have a bit more originality/lore baked into them. And, a greater emphasis on magic in the background of each character/class. I noticed in a lot of the earlier 90's era content that creators would often hype of the guilds, kingdom's guards, and sorcerer societies that the characters you could play as would come from. And, I thought having that as the emphasis might be even more interesting. I figures there's two ways go to about it. Have a background creation tool kit for the player when designing his character that ties into a darker fantasy generated origin with associated skills and weapons specializations. Or, just come in heavy with preconceived ideas and give the players a lot of options. I'll post some examples later on.
This isn't an idea, it's a shopping list. What do you have that's coherent and gameable? Failing that, what are your ideas for something coherent and gameable?
I have an idea, but you're talking about the TLDR portion of it. I'm just putting forward the design spirit here as that's really the only thing the OP can do. I'll cover a few examples tomorrow. But, a few in brief. A fighter raised as a gladiator in a brutal and callous empire. Trained in a number of mystical killing fighting hand styles and with the use of strange gladiatorial gear. Alchemically created weapons that stun and cause pain. A wizard born in isolation in a vast tower surrounded by other wizards. Who believe their thoughts can naturally reshape the world and that all outsiders are lesser beings. This naturally shapes the type of magic he uses and his violent or self serving bent as an adventurer.
>Conceptually the game would be the class structure and general direction where you go on war campaigns, dungeon diving, and grand adventures.
D&D trying to do all of this with equal levels of simulation is one of it's biggest problems
>But, the classes would have a bit more originality/lore baked into them. And, a greater emphasis on magic in the background of each character/class.
But people play Martials in D&D because they DON'T want to use magic. Any magic system with any level of meaningful depth is going to be inherently complex enough to put off some amount of players, and martials are intentionally simple and not reliant on magic to ease people into the game.
>I noticed in a lot of the earlier 90's era content that creators would often hype of the guilds, kingdom's guards, and sorcerer societies that the characters you could play as would come from. And, I thought having that as the emphasis might be even more interesting.
Harry Potter-style or kitchen sink modern fantasy is inherently difficult or impossible to design around with the level of simulation that D&D generally tries to achieve. You could definitely do these elements better than D&D does but you'd need to drop a lot of D&D's combat-oriented rules and crunch to do it well.
>I figures there's two ways go to about it. Have a background creation tool kit for the player when designing his character that ties into a darker fantasy generated origin with associated skills and weapons specializations. >Or, just come in heavy with preconceived ideas and give the players a lot of options. I'll post some examples later on.
I don't see how either of these ideas connect to what you were talking about previously. You don't seem to have any coherent plan here.
'D&D Clone but more like old D&D' already exists, it's called "Old Editions of D&D."
>But people play Martials in D&D because they DON'T want to use magic. Any magic system with any level of meaningful depth is going to be inherently complex enough to put off some amount of players, and martials are intentionally simple and not reliant on magic to ease people into the game.
You can't please everyone. But, fighter would be focused on fighting. With the mysticism coming in the form of that.
>Harry Potter-style or kitchen sink modern fantasy is inherently difficult or impossible to design around with the level of simulation that D&D generally tries to achieve. You could definitely do these elements better than D&D does but you'd need to drop a lot of D&D's combat-oriented rules and crunch to do it well.
D&D style is really the only thing I'd seek to emulate for familiarity's sake. I find the vagueness of and tasteless nature of the various D&D settings themselves, especially divorced from mechanics really harms the game's appeal/fun.
That's no difficulty. I'm not asking for ideas but general feelings in concern too.
I don't wanna be too negative here, but coming up with the concept is the easy part. Designing a playable game that is better than what already exists is where 95% of the difficulty lies.
I'm not seeking to reinvent the wheel or surpass it. But, simply deliver a good game.
Bro, are you really asking for general feelings on Ganker and talking about D&D??
That aside, if you like it, do it and play with your friends (If you are doing this to make money is another point of view)
My advice is to write it, see how you get and where that leads you and will hopefully tell you exactly what you want out of a system, all you're going to get are emotional reactions based off what you said, rather than any qualitative feedback based on the system
sure man, you've just gotta write it
Good news, someone already made it
>www.13thagesrd.com/
This has nothing at all to do with my idea. Why even post this?
who the frick knows what your idea is about beyond "DnD with factions and backstories", and lots of iterations and clones of DnD already fall in that category. Make a quick and dirty proof of concept and come back again.
I mean, this isn't too far off from what D&D already is. Dungeon diving and grand adventures is a good start.
Having classes with more lore baked-in is probably just a matter of taking concepts like Druids and Paladins as a baseline and then building off of those. Classes where there are specific codes of conduct or requirements to be a member of that class. AD&D had plenty of stuff like that, though you could also probably look at 3.5's prestige classes for ideas.
That said, I'm not sure where your background-based idea ties into this. An emphasis on backgrounds offering more can be good, but from the sound of it it seems like what you wanted was to put a greater emphasis on things like factions and how classes tie into those factions. But you don't need to rely on backgrounds to tie players into factions if rather than a 'Fighter' class you have a 'Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle' class.
>I have an idea for a D&D clone.
please don't tell anyone about it
Try googling the many old school editions and clones of D&D.
It sounds to me like you're on the wavelength ACKS is attempting to be at.
Let's assume you play (you don't). What is it, rules-wise, in your current D&D campaign that doesn't work? It appears that you have a problem with how people make their characters detached from the campaign world. You should have told them to make characters who are part of the setting. That's the fix. Literally just session 0. You didn't do it, and now you think D&D is broken because you and your friends are too lazy to talk. Idiotic. However, if you want to make it easier on them the next time, prepare custom backgrounds and make them tied to the classes so that you can't have a Fighter whose background is somehow Fisherman - it'd have to be Militia or Gladiator or some other career that's in your world and lets you get proficient with weapons.
>the game would be the class structure and general direction where you go on war campaigns, dungeon diving, and grand adventures.
> the classes would have a bit more originality/lore baked into them
>hype of the guilds, kingdom's guards, and sorcerer societies
You’re moronic, sorry.
It doesn't sound like you are even remotely familiar with the history of D&D. You should start with familiarizing yourself with with what came before, in depth, before you get any grand ideas of doing anything new. A lot of what you are talking about, and more, has been done since before D&D was published.
Quick rundown?
Die