Stone Lords: Thoughts.

Michael's game seems to be developing in a nice straight line, with minor bumps to flatten. I'd like to talk about my thoughts on this game:

• Monsters: From the first list of ideas Michael gave, I found that there were very few creatures. I'm not sure if it's because of the oversimplification of some groups (Dinosaurs, for example) or because he's trying to stay clear from the monsters that appear in D&D and the such. It's a great idea to get out of the comfort zone, and even greater to be prepared to make mistakes. I applaud this effort. However, I'd like to suggest that you look into other Stone cultures (Latinamerican, Australian, Celtic). It might expand both your creature list as well as what you could add to the game for mechanics and/or other stuff (plots, loot...)

• Magic: Not so sure how a Portal school healing spell could work, the ideas in general are basic and might need a bit more refining in the literary sense. As an example: Would Earth magic allow you to create sentient warriors (golems)? You only mention it can alter earth and rock, but I'm guessing you could expand on those, because it is really a big difference if the only thing you can do is something close to Earthbending (launching stone projectiles) but you can't do Earth summoning, so to speak. The rest of the magical schools sound great, and I can think of a plethora of spells for each one (healing rain, enemy shift, fire link, tsunami endurance, and so on).

• Classes: Once again, the first list could have done with a little refining, but with your revision (removing the Alchemist class, and adding the Marauder and Necromancer) it makes it look more in-setting. I like the various ideas you have for most of them (except the Bard and Assassin).
  Why don't I like the bard? Well, in Stone ages, and in most stone tribes, the one who "sang" stories and legends was the Shaman or the Tribe Elder (Usually the chief, as well). As for the assassin, I feel like it's too advanced a term for a world of Stone. Sure, the Trickster is an advanced term as well, but it sounds more feasible to have a guy who can make tricks and traps to escape and confuse the foe in a Stone Age setting than a guy who's a trained killer. At the same time, in a Stone Age setting, almost everybody was a trained killer of sorts (All you had to know is how to hit your foe over the head with a big rock hammer) of both men and monsters.
• Tribes: The historical approach might prove quite difficult, and you're sure to piss someone off if it's published and you made one tiny mistake. However, it might also turn out to be easier in the creative sense, since you're already a step ahead in the basic design of the tribes, and you just have to add what makes if fit the game and setting. Creating your own tribe might be great as well, considering it allows for you to fully cutomize your character's traits. However, as I had stated before, it would be great to have a general idea of "possible" tribes (like, say, some sort of Northern tribe would usually have a natural resistance to cold, or a natural bonus to strength).

So those are my thoughts on Stone Lords.

Stone Lords: Weapons

Hey. Just a quick post. I'm just listing weapons that'll be in Stone Lord. There won't be many to select from as this is primitive man and metalsmithing is nonexistent or very rare.

-rock dagger
-axe
-small spear
-large spear
-light club
-great club
-rock
-short bow
-long bow
-natural attack

There'll also be natural attacks when you transform into your animal spirit guide. Anymore ideas on primitive weapons.

Stone Lords: Combat Mechanics

Hi. Just posting some thoughts on how combat is going to work. Right now, these are just vague ideas and can change. I don't just want the game to be "roll a whatever sided die and if it beats their AC, you deal damage." I want something more original as this is done for most RPGs (though it is simplistic and easy).

Stances: Basically, during combat, you select a stance for your character to take. Based on the stance, you gain certain bonuses to certain abilities or rolls. You do not get to choose a stance if you are taken by surprised as you did not have time to prepare for a combat stance. When you declare a stance, you must remain in that stance for at least 5* turns. The three stances are:
-Offensive: you gain a bonus to attacks and damage
-Defensive: you gain a bonus to armor class
-Observational: you gain no bonus, but when you switch stances your bonus is greater as you're studying your opponent's movements and attacks and have a better understanding of them
I'm thinking at higher level, there could be an ability to combine Defensive and Observational (in that you're on the defensive, but you're still studying your opponent).
Also, Hunters and Shamen can switch out of Observational stance sooner when fighting animals.

*This number can change if it seems too high or low.




Fatigue Limit: I was also thinking that if you continue to fight for too long in combat, you start to take minuses or even lose hit points as you're moving around a lot - being agile - and your wounds are getting worse. Obviously, you'd have to be fighting for awhile - I'm not sure what a good number of turns for this is - but certain classes (soldier, fighter) can go longer than others.

Lethal Strike: This is just a rough idea I'm kicking around with, but basically you can strike the head or piece the heart with one powerful, precise blow that instantly kills your foe. The way this would work is that you make a normal attack roll, and the number you have to beat if your foe's AC plus a bonus that varies based on how far away they are from 0 HP (so a 50 HP would get a high DC than someone with only 10). And if you fail this roll, you still do damage, but a lot less than a normal hit. I'm not too fond of this concept right now, but I'm just trying to think up new ideas for Stone Lords to make it stand out and interesting.

Rage: Another idea I had is that every character can go into a rage at any time. Since these are early men, they'd be more savage. The way this works, is that you can potentially go into any number of rages any day. You have to make a rage check to go into it, and the DC increases by 10 every time you use it without getting a night's rest. This number increases regardless of if you successful or not. So your first Rage check for the day has no increased penalty, the second has a +10, the third has a +20, the fourth has a +30, etc. I'd figure if I did this, I'd have to do something for non-melee classes so melee classes aren't all broken with this.

Hit Points determine Starting Order: I'm not too attached to this idea, but it would make determining who goes first faster. Basically, the order everyone goes in is determined by whoever has the most amount of current hit points, and you go in order from most to least. Obviously this would be unfair to casters, but I feel that if you have more hit points you're more ready for combat. I think maybe there should be another factor with this too thought so it's not just all super tough end bosses go first.

Armor Class: Since most of the armor in Stone Lords is going to be very primitive (animal hides, bones, and wood) preventing successful hits from opponents is going to be more based on speed, grace, and deflection. For this reason, I was thinking there should be at least two stats you add to your armor class: Grace (how well you can move on your feet) and Agility (how fast you are). I was also thinking of having a deflection and/or parry bonus too.

Reducing Damage: Again, since armor isn't too advance, the way I'd figure it would work is that if you are hit, and you are wearing armor, you roll a die, add a bonus from your armor, and subtract that from how much damage you would have taken.

So, these are just rough ideas I have on combat.

Stone Lords: Class Revisions

So I've been thinking over my classes, and I'm dropping one and adding two others. I may have posted this before, but I'll do it again just to be sure. So alchemist is gone. I'm going to merger that with the other spellcasters. I'm also adding a Necromancer class...for necromancy. The other class I'm adding is Marauder. Marauder is gonna be a pillager type of class. It's going to be like soldier, except soldiers are trained for large scale battles, are marauders are trained to rush into an enemy's territory and just cause as much damage as possible quickly.

That's all I got for now. I have some notes on combat mechanics, but I just wanted to get this up to maintain my one week quota. I'll post some of the combat rules either later today or tomorrow.

Devastation: corruption of life. Rough draft.

So I came up with a game idea, it would combine post-apocalypse and high fantasy, with magic being irritated minerals like iron, stone, coal, etc. that would now cause a chain reaction with some energy and blood are used as a catalyst, causing magic. but I need help with some of the other stuff as I am no good with the important stuff but I did come up with some stuff already with the help of Quino cruz.


 two of the basic casting classes the ruination or known by the general populace ruiner the other being the corrupter. ruination being called such in my head because they cause the world to crumble and break down with their in born link to the magic stuff, corrupter being called such because of his continued use of the minerals causing his body to degenerate if over used. how they use magic will be different the ruination would be born with these irradiated materials growing inside him because his parents were corrupter or ruination themselves that used their abilities a lot.

I still have to come up with class tables and a many other things like what kind of monsters will be in it but I feel this is a good start. I am open to suggestions and ideas.

Stone Lords: Magic

Hey. Still working on Stone Lords. I'm trying to figure what sort of combat system to create with it as well as other mechanics. For now though, I've come up with the schools of magic:

-earth/plant: magic for altering plants, rock and earth
-necromancy: magic for communing with spirits, raising the dead, and causing plagues or instant death
-animal(transformation): magic involved with affecting beasts or transforming humans to give them strong, beast-like properties
-weather: magic to alter and control weather as well as the future (astrology)
-fire/pyromancy: the most basic, used for creating destructive energy attacks
-portal(summon/teleport): magic used to travel great distances in short time, open portals, or summon other creatures
-water/ocean/sea: magic involved with controlling water, tides, waves, and the creatures that live in them

In terms of healing, I'd figure each school would have at least one or two healing spells. Like, water you can turn ordinary water into healing potions. Or animal fills you with new beast like strength that heals you.

Stone Lords: Monsters

Hey guys! I'm still tinkering with the alchemist class in Stone Lords. I might just drop it. Also, maybe thinking of adding a Necromancer class. The idea just came to me. But that's beside the point. I'm posting some concepts I have for monsters in Stone Lords. I want them to seem more prehistoric and not too much fantasy, though some of these are fantasy/mythical creatures. Really, I'm just wondering if they seem out of place. (Also, the fantasy creatures are from ancient cultures.)

Dinosaurs
Gigantic ice age mammals/predators
Giant inspects
Giant reptiles
Spirits
Elementals
Big foot/yeti/sasquatch/monstrous apes
Plant monsters
Lizard folk
Frog folk
Bat folk
Greek/Egyptian/Mesopotamian mythical creatures
Leviathan
Behemoth
Giants
Dire animals
Monstrous/gigantic sea life
Animals in general