I'm writing a fantasy supplement. Unfortunately I'm not confident with recent editions of D&D. Given that, am I more likely to find more of an audience if it's systemless, or would it be better to have stats for one or more systems?
What about the approach of this blog (http://rpg-creatures.blogspot.com), where creatures have stats, but they're given in general terms so you can translate to your own system?
Quote from: Age of Fable;367556What about the approach of this blog (http://rpg-creatures.blogspot.com), where creatures have stats, but they're given in general terms so you can translate to your own system?
Definitely. But not quite in the way they do it, I would hope.
Quote from: Age of Fable;367556I'm writing a fantasy supplement. Unfortunately I'm not confident with recent editions of D&D. Given that, am I more likely to find more of an audience if it's systemless, or would it be better to have stats for one or more systems?
What about the approach of this blog (http://rpg-creatures.blogspot.com), where creatures have stats, but they're given in general terms so you can translate to your own system?
Use a % rating for your stats, if you go systemless. Describe in the front what the ends of the bellcurve are. that way they can fill it in theselves and know not just where things stand, but where they stand in realtion to each other within the supplement.
Systemless is definitely better than half ass. The bad parts of the D20 glut were mainly people who didn't like or know D20 writing for D20 as that was the in thing to do. It's proably not worth it to spend tons of time learning a system that you're not into to make stats for it.
I think some stats would make things concrete and concise. I think the example has too many stats for systemless. Maybe things like intelligence, strength, size, speed, damage equivalent, then special abilities. If the stats are systemless, anchors are very handy, like 3 is human average, 5 is human max. Since you're assuming a roleplaying audience, it would be ok to use things like fire and illusion magic to describe abilities and let the user fill in from there. For damage, you could say things like claws equivalent to daggers, bite equivalent to battle axe or just give a number for relative scale.
An alternative would be to partner with someone who can do the stats.
I asked a similar question once before (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=14937&highlight=systemless+setting). The thread might have some relevant info.
I'd recommend using OD&D/Basic/AD&D. It's a common language that nearly all gamers know. If you want to go with a second system I'd choose BRP but only if you're familiar with it and understand the audience.
As for percentile stats as LV suggests, you need to be careful with interpretation. The 3d6 values of D&D (and BRP more or less) may not be well-defined, but they're intuitively understood by many. With percentile, one is much more tempted to see the values as absolute measures in relation to one another. I.e., is a strength of 50 really "ten times" as strong as a strength of 5?
What I'm really saying is that stats are meaningless absent some mechanics that relate them to one another.
At very least you ought to take your stat blocks and then decide how you would convert them into a few of the more popular systems that you know. Then use that to write up some conversion guidelines.
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;367807I'd recommend using OD&D/Basic/AD&D. It's a common language that nearly all gamers know.
I agree. Stick with the vocabulary of the gaming public as much as possible. Keep in mind that you can't really publish OD&D/AD&D compatible materials but they could be S&W/LL/OSRIC compatible and it's pretty much the same thing.
Quote from: Elliot Wilen;367807I'd recommend using OD&D/Basic/AD&D. It's a common language that nearly all gamers know.
That's a way to go, but probably half or more of all active gamers started with D&D 3.0 or at least in the last 10 years. Especially, when you think of active as in buying product as old school groups who've been doing their thing for decades aren't big buyers of new stuff.
Quote from: Nicephorus;368868That's a way to go, but probably half or more of all active gamers started with D&D 3.0 or at least in the last 10 years. Especially, when you think of active as in buying product as old school groups who've been doing their thing for decades aren't big buyers of new stuff.
That and the current market is kind of why I was recommending a section describing the bell curve of the area and the stats, and then listing everything as a % point.
Any system will be able to translate pretty easily.
Just include some Savage Worlds stats and i'm happy with it.
Quote from: Hairfoot;367756I asked a similar question once before (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=14937&highlight=systemless+setting). The thread might have some relevant info.
That thread reminded me of something I was thinking a while ago: that 'systemless settings' are often sold to non-gamers. For example the books in the 80s with science-fiction paintings treated as scenes from a single universe, or the Dinotopia books.
But they seem to require a lot of good art.
Quote from: Nicephorus;368868That's a way to go, but probably half or more of all active gamers started with D&D 3.0 or at least in the last 10 years. Especially, when you think of active as in buying product as old school groups who've been doing their thing for decades aren't big buyers of new stuff.
I'm not sure of the answer to this: if you said "4 Hit Dice, moves at such-and-such speed" or "5th level Fighter" how would that work for 3rd and 4th edition?
The other thing I was thinking is that if I can say "that monster is 3 Hit Dice", then a DM can probably do that for themselves anyway. And my scale might be different to theirs.
Quote from: Age of Fable;368924I'm not sure of the answer to this: if you said "4 Hit Dice, moves at such-and-such speed" or "5th level Fighter" how would that work for 3rd and 4th edition?
The other thing I was thinking is that if I can say "that monster is 3 Hit Dice", then a DM can probably do that for themselves anyway. And my scale might be different to theirs.
I know very little about 4th but that would work ok for anythign 3rd ed or less. AC varies within D&D and even more across systems but you could give armor equivalents, such as leather or full plate.
Lots of art would help widen sales. But you did a great job repurposing art for the Age of Fable online game. You could use a bunch of Rackham and other 19th century art, with Renaissance thrown in as well.
Quote from: Nicephorus;368976Lots of art would help widen sales. But you did a great job repurposing art for the Age of Fable online game. You could use a bunch of Rackham and other 19th century art, with Renaissance thrown in as well.
Thanks! I've actually sourced the artwork I'm going to use. It'll have a similar look to the online game, but all black and white.