[freeroleplay] Re: Roles?
- From: Ricardo Gladwell <president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FRPGC <freeroleplay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 12:46:00 +0100
On Mon, 2004-07-12 at 00:31, Troy joseph Truchon wrote:
> Is there a reason why fringe has a class/roles system? Is this intended to be
> integral or simply a package that players can purchase at design time?
>
> BTW I'm troy and have been lurking for a bit here.
Hi Troy,
Welcome to the list as a more active member. I had no idea we even had
any lurkers :)
The reason I added Roles to FRINGE was because I noticed that a lot of
roleplaying games had templates of traits that frequently did the job of
classes. I believe that roleplaying is, quite literally, all about
_playing roles_ and therefore it made sense to create a convention for
having them. Roles do not just encompass class, but also race, clan,
breed, power levels, etc.. They merely represent a part you are playing
as your character.
Roles can be both bought at character creation or adopted as the
character progresses. They are also optional: you can play FRINGE
without Roles altogether for much more free-form character creation.
Actually, I am having a slight design problem with Roles at the moment.
Because Roles mean that character creation for different genres is
different, the 'cost' of skills and Roles do not compare. For example,
in a medieval fantasy setting skills are much harder to come by due to
poor education, and therefore are more expensive: to obtain a skill you
have to purchase an 'access role' or profession to access certain
skills. This effectively increases the price of a skill.
Similarly, in a contemporary setting where character creation is much
more free-form (no access roles) skill purchase is much cheaper: you
simply buy the skills you want without worrying about any prerequisites.
So, how do I make the difference measurable and quantifiable?
There are three options:
1. Ignore the difference: characters from different genres should
probably never meet anyway so the relative power scales are irrelevant.
2. Make all skills dependant on 'access roles', i.e. hard code access
roles and/or professions into the character creation process.
3. Make all character creation free-form and Roles are merely packages
of cheaper skills.
Anyway, I hope this answers your questions. Kind regards...
--
Ricardo Gladwell
President, Free Roleplaying Community
http://www.freeroleplay.org/
president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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