Statistical Elements in Roleplaying
When you are playing in a text-based roleplay, there are very few persistent measures used to track progress. Even the simplest implementation of a health system can greatly affect the way players will approach a situation, especially if it could result in a serious injury or fatality for the team. Adding levels of proficiency for tools or weapons could greatly affect the way characters will be utilised in combat, rather than rushing in and fighting simply with a whirl of words, or perhaps a way of having only certain characters, or item strengths, being able to use/break key objectives.
Of the many people I have spoken to, the vast majority do not support the idea of widespread implementation of such systems, believing that this would restrict play, and be too time consuming for all.
If handled in reasonable sized groups by a regularly active GM, this shouldn't be too much of a problem - having a reliable second GM popping in wouldn't do any harm, as long as they conduct themselves in the same way as the first. By "reasonable sized", I mean a handful of players, five or six at most.
GMs would take a narrator's role/DM role, describing the features of the landscape, and key objects of interest. It would also be their job to control the "spawning" of NPC/Enemies, as any GM/DM would. Once your world has been built to your satisfaction, this is no different to how you would normally go about it, unless you normally allow the players to create the environment....
So let's take a looksie at some possible arrangements to add simple statistics to your RP.
MAKING A CHARACTER SHEET
First thing's first - health. You might not want to put this in, but I see it as a basic tool for character progression. It will change often, and GMs need to be active to keep it up to date with the action.
So, if you are on RoleplayGateway, and you are using your standard Roleplay Tab RP, go into the characters tab, and quickly assign each character a number. (doing this now may save you time later)
Now, let's go to OOC, and open a new thread. Give it a name, such as "Character Sheets" or "Character Stats" or something similar, and list all active characters in the RP, preceded by their number on your list - be sure to leave at least 2 lines between characters, ie,
1. Jonah Barrie
2. Michelle Evans
3. .... etc.
That's not too difficult, is it? You now have the start of a usable character sheet. Congrats!
If you want, you could make the name of the character a hyperlink to the character?s profile, but that?s just an option.
Now we've made a start, let's get some figures. If you are using character "classes", you may want to implement pre-defined starting health as suits the type of character, ie, a strong warrior-type will likely have more health than a physically-weaker mage, and so forth. How you set up classes is up to you, if you set them at all.
Example of class health differences. Standard warrior class could start with 100hp. A mage would have lower health at maybe 80hp, and a berserker/brute type could have 120/130/140/..... who knows? It's all up to you.
If you want players to free-build their character, you may have their values calculated manually, whether it's using dice, or a generator, or whatever. It all depends on what you want as a standard base reference for health.
Example of health calculation for a character is to roll two dice, and add 12 to the total. Character's minimum 'initial' stat would be 14, but a possible maximum of 24.
It is up to you how you wish to set them - I'm not forcing any idea upon you.
So now you've got those numbers, be sure to add them into our "Character Sheet" thread, preferably on the line below the name. Remember to label it consistently - if you put HP: in front of the stat for one character, do so for all.
Also, if you've gone with the class system, you may want to note the character's class on the same line as their name and number.
Example:
1. Jonah Barrie (Warrior)
HP: 100/100
2. Michelle Evans (Mage)
HP: 100/100
3. ... etc.
MANA
A common accompaniment to a health system is Mana (magic) or MP - you are more likely to be familiar with the latter, especially if you've played any MMORPGs. Mana is used to cast magic or use magic weapons - useful for preventing Mages powerplaying.
This could be integrated in a very similar way, with a more dominant level given to mages/spellcasters/druids on this one (this stat is very much theme based, and really only applicable to those in fitting with the fantasy genre). How you set this is up to you. Remember, the stat you provide as the maximum initial character value for a stat will determine the stats for enemies - would you have your character's first battle be against a 75HP Goblin, when you only have maybe 20HP at max?
My own preference for Mana stats is to make the most basic spell cost 1 point to use, and work up from there. If you don't want to spend all the time making spell lists and the like, I may make up a template one for public use, which you can edit or add to as required. As a base level, I'd recommend giving mages 20MP, and the melee classes lesser. Classes that lend themselves to range should be somewhere in between, by the traditions I know of. Again, what you think is right for you is what you should roll with. You may have no MP at all for non-mage types if you wanted.
Once (if) you've calculated/assigned MP stats, you can add them on a new line under the HP stat for that character.
SKILL
Next up, is a variable for determining how likely you are to win a round of combat. Some sources refer to this as a skill level, or power level. In D&D, it's similar to AC in a way. This variable which I will refer to as SKILL, is an integer that will help us with the combat system. How you wish to calculate it is up to you. For most situations, I've found that rolling a single die and adding 6, or rolling 2 die and adding 6 will give a close range of decent starting values for new characters, but again, it all comes down to what sort of maximum skill you want. In my experience, lower values work better depending on how you wish to calculate battle results. Again, how you perceive the difference between physical combat and magical combat is up to you, and it's up to you if you show any bias towards either skill.
DAMAGE
Lastly for our basic character stats, a Damage variable. Ideally, this should be the damage caused by the weapon - you can add modifiers (detailed later!) in addition, but this should show the base damage of the current weapon. It also will help greatly if you put down the name of the current weapon as well. Like everything so far, try to keep it in context with the HP stat - giving a starting character a weapon that does 100 damage per strike in a world populated with enemies no higher than 50hp would make that character overpowered by a long shot. From here, it is also a possible next step to add a critical strike chance (a percentage) - the likelihood of doing more damage with a weapon than normal - this is perhaps a little complex for some, but you could easily use a random number generator to decide.
Note: If the weapon will use Mana, be sure to note the cost of it so you don't forget it.
Example of MP, Skill and Damage in our character sheets):
1. Jonah Barrie (Warrior)
HP: 100/100
MP: 10/10
SKILL: 10
DMG: 8 (Rusty Iron Longsword)
(continued...)
2. Michelle Evans (Mage)
HP: 80/80
MP: 20/20
SKILL: 10
DMG: 14 (Staff of Wind - Costs 2MP)
3. ... etc.
ENEMIES
Now, the thing about these stats is, they aren't very useful without any input from the GM. Just like you designed the world and all its features, it is up to you to design the enemies, including their health, the damage they will do, some variable affecting their chance of winning a round of combat (skill?), and chances of landing critical strikes (if added to player characters as well). You can do this per individual enemy, or set generic data for any instance of that creature, ie, you could have every Goblin in your world with the same stats.
This will take time to create a deadly library of creatures to throw at your players, so don't panic. You may want to go with a more relaxed approach, and create creatures as you progress, if the time to sit down and make a list is not at hand. Remember, your players are an asset - don't throw them straight in with high-damage or high-health creatures - ease them in, and even then keep major enemies toned down, so that they are actually beatable - hope and a fair chance to beat an enemy is what will keep your players interested in battling.
If you want to allow players to see the stats of enemies, you could make a new thread in OOC, titled "Enemy Stats" or similar, and write up details. A template is shown below (very weak creature, or very weak instance of this creature):
1. Goblin
HP: 10/10
SKILL: 3
DMG: 5 (Claws)
CRIT: 5%
If you don't, you could save the stats to a word document, lay them out in a database file, or, if you have a Co-GM (or two), you may want to put it on a pad of some sort for collaborative additions/editions.
COMBAT
So, now we have our character stats and our enemy's stats sorted. Now, it?s time for battling. My examples are set with my own preference in mind - it?s up to you how you go about this.
Let?s imagine a battle between my character ?Jonah Barrie? and one of our generic goblins.
1. Jonah Barrie----------1. Goblin
HP: 100/100--------------HP: 10/10
MP: 10/10 ----------------MP: -
SKILL: 10-----------------SKILL: 3
DMG: 8 (R.I. Longsword)--DMG: 5 (Claws)
For the purposes of this style of combat I?ve chosen, we are going to calculate the stats simultaneously, and I will add that combat situations should be either be forewarned by the GM or initiated by a player character. It?s best if you and your players agree on a manner of posting, that indicates what the character intends to do in any given round of combat.
The system this example revolves around is simple. Two dice are rolled for each player. Each player?s dice roll is added to their Skill variable, forming one final attack strength. This way, a higher skill will make you more likely to win, but not guaranteed unless you are at least 12 skill points higher than your opponent.
For example:
Jonah rolls a 4 and a 6 (making 10). This is added to his Skill, giving him a final attack strength of 20.
The Goblin rolls the same, 4 and 6 (10). This is added to its skill of 3, giving it a final attack strength of 13.
The result is that Jonah wins the round, and deals damage equal to his DMG stat, in this case, 8.
The Goblin, although it has lost 8HP, is still able to fight (it still has 2HP left), and so we move on to the next round. The system repeats in the same way until one party flees or is defeated. GMs may have some enemies retreat before reaching 0HP - especially if it is a persistent boss that pops up every now and again, growing stronger every battle (kinda like ??? in the Pokemon series xD).
Make sure you record damage to players as it happens - keeping on top of it will keep everything up to date and keep the game going strong. A very well organised GM will keep a complete log of every stat change as it happens if they don?t have time to edit their OOC post straightaway. It is good practice to ?timestamp? major events, such as battles, unlocking of areas, stat changes outwith battle, etc. This will help when looking for specific changes.
Example:
14/12/2011 - 21:47
Jonah entered battle with Goblin.
Jonah hit goblin for 8 damage (2)
Goblin hit Jonah for 5 damage (95)
Jonah hit Goblin for 8 damage (0)
Jonah defeated Goblin.
Jonah HP: 95/100
14/12/2011 - 22:20
Jonah ate an apple to restore 5HP (100)
Jonah HP: 100/100
-----
This log doesn?t even need to be published for your players to see - just open it up and add to it as you need to. This way, if players think there are discrepancies, you can quote from the log to disprove it.
MODIFIERS
This is where things become a lot more personalised. Modifiers are almost identical to buffs you might find in WoW or other such MMOs. They are essentially bonuses or minuses to your character?s stats, and most often in a text-based world, an accompaniment to items and upgrades, such as armour, weapons, tools, etc.
Asides from how much damage a weapon will do, modifiers applied to items can effect the user?s skill with that item (perhaps it is easier to wield, which would increase the user?s skill?), or it could even have an effect on the enemy - maybe lower the damage they do per strike? Maybe lower their attack strength?.... and that?s just for starters. The possibilities for modifiers are limited only by your imagination and the number of variables you allow in your RP. With any items you can imagine at your disposal, combinations of modifiers are limitless.
Just remember to use them to aid progress - don?t give them out to players willy nilly, or just hand them out near the start.
It would be wise to make a rough item list (first, organise categories - melee weapons, ranged weapons, armour, etc - then deal with the individual items in each.). Just like making the library of enemies, this could take a while, but at the end, it will add even more depth to your world, seeming less improvised and more professionally done. Then, once that?s done, you can work on things like potions and consumables - players will need a way to regain health.
A rough template item list for a fantasy setting will be attached later. Feel free to base your own on it, or not, as you please.
INVENTORY
If these stats are not enough for you, or you just want a proper system for carrying items, it?s time to implement an inventory. The best way to do this now is to create an OOC thread for each character in the game/party, titled ?[character name here] - Character Sheet? and copy their relevant sheet details into it.
Once you?ve done that, put a new section below it, titled ?Inventory?, ?Items?, or similar. Done that? Excellent. Now list the items that player has - remembering to add DMG stats, modifiers they provide, quantity (if necessary) and noting whether the player has that item equipped to use)
Example:
1. Jonah Barrie (Warrior)
HP: 100/100
MP: 10/10
SKILL: 10
DMG: 8 (Rusty Iron Longsword)
-----
Inventory:
Rusty Iron Longsword (DMG: 8) - Equipped
Leather Armour (+0HP) - Equipped
Apple x1 (+5HP when consumed)
Silver Coin x45
You are of course free to set a limit on the number of slots a player may have to carry items, and perhaps exclude items such as currency or equipped gear from counting as a slot. It?s up to you! xD
In theory, this is everything you could possibly need to get a manageable RP with integrated character stats, up and running with few problems. It?s all a case of choosing what aspects fit in with your RP, and how much you want the stats to play a part in it. Some may only opt for the inventory idea, which is understandable.
So, in summary, yes, making an RP with statistics is time consuming. It could take as much time as it took to build the world the system will be a part of. It?s entirely up to you whether you feel you can add that extra edge for players. It?s also something you would have to put time into regularly, whether you are a GM or a player - GMs should probably be looking at the player?s stats from other RPs to determine whether they are reliable enough to post regularly and keep up.
A well designed world with a well designed plot, will go hand in hand with a sturdy basis for stats. If you feel that the stats aren?t working for your RP, you can simply remove them without any fuss at all.
FINAL TIPS
Just some final pointers and reminders for prospective GMs:
- Make sure you are active regularly.
- If you are feeling swamped, try taking on a trustworthy second GM, and split the players into parties - makes the stat updating very manageable if you only have half what you had before.
- Don?t overcomplicate the statistics - it can be tempting to have all the bells and whistles going, but all it will do is frustrate you as a GM. Use only what you feel you will be able to manage, then add or take away as you feel is right.
- Focus on building the world first. Don?t build the world with statistics in mind, because they are not going to be what attracts players - immersive detail beats flawless stats, any day of the week. Suggested priorities order: World -> Plot -> NPCs/Creatures -> Items/Objectives -> Statistics
- Handpick players - Don?t approve everyone who applies just to get it started. Make sure they seem reliable, active, and have put some level of thought into their character profile.
And with that, I think we are done. I hope you find this guide useful when making your own RP with Stats.
Lots of Love,
Whiskey
PS. An RP with stats will only work if you make it work - I can only suggest factors to consider and ways in which they could work - the nitty gritty, as they say, is all down to you.
Google announced on Tuesday that 10 billion apps have now been downloaded from Android Market and to celebrate hitting what it considers to be a milestone (yes, it is a rather large number) it?s hooked up with some Android developers to offer a selection of apps at the dirt cheap price of 10 cents. The offer will last 10 days.