Creating A System

There are a great number of role playing systems out there. There are more than I am even aware of. Some systems exist specifically for you to be able to make your own custom adventures with them. Still, I find that sometimes none of the systems feel right, and then you have to build one from scratch.

A friend and I wanted to make a tabletop game based on Pokemon. A major distinguishment we wanted to have was realism. A caterpillar and a giant fire-breathing dragon are in no way comparable in a fight. There should never be a way for a caterpillar to win. However, a caterpillar would be able to get into tight areas that a giant dragon could not. With this in mind, we knew that a large amount of the mechanics of the Pokemon video games would have to be tossed out.

What we also found was that none of the systems really had mechanics for being a person that was potentially in command of several minions at once. Any type of minion control was also within a combat system that was utterly different than what we were envisioning. So ultimately, the best thing to do was build our own system.

The first thing to understand if you are considering making your own role playing system is that it is a massive amount of work. You have to decide on the very most basic of mechanics, even down to what dice you roll and how you determine results. Realize that a role playing system is the way that you approximate the real world. You want players to feel like they can do anything they want. How well can your system handle the zany ideas players come up with? How do you have skills or abilities that are broad enough to feel all-encompassing, but specific enough to make individual characters feel unique or special.

Do characters improve over time?  How do they do it? Do they "level up"? Do they gain points that they cash in for new skills? This seems so simple, but you can spend weeks agonizing over what makes sense.

How much should role playing affect your game? Some games have very minimal mechanics, and others are so strict that they're manual versions of a computer game.

When you look at a Player's Handbook or Core Rule Book for a tabletop game, they are often hundreds of pages long. When you are planning a system, keep this in mind, and think about the fact that people not only had to write these things, but come up with all the things they are talking about, too.

What makes the process nice, though, aside from the joy of creating something awesome, is that you are never truly building it from scratch. There is so much out there already, and many good and bad examples to learn from. There is so much inspiration that if you ever feel stuck, a perusal of books or a listening of gamers' stories can help you find exactly what you need to get you past a mental block. For example, there actually exists a pokemon tabletop game already. I completely disagree with most of its mechanics, which is why we are still making our own system, but on a couple occasions, seeing the way they handled a given situation or mechanic has inspired me to come up with my own ways to handle them.

Creating a system is a massive undertaking, but it is a rewarding one. If you find yourself with the time, patience, and drive to make one, you may find the process as enjoyable as playing with the system you have created. It will also be a great source of pride.