Someone suggested I try this forum to ask for help in the gamebook Im working on for Fun. I don’t know if this would be the best place or not. Often most game book forums out there are inactive, or seem to be focused on Reviewing, or collecting old game books instead of WRITEING THEM. So If you guys can help me I’ld greatly apreciate it. The main thing to remember is that this system does not use a computer. Its meant to be read by a person and played with dice. Although my project will be finalized in a digital presentation It will be formatted to look as if it were a scan in of an old paperback novel. As mentioned, Any help is greatly apreciated because my number one thing I need is… Feedback. Constructive feedback. Good or bad. here it goes.
#1 Fact
I decided to write a game book.
Im using advelh to keep track of everything.
That’s an editing program that if you change paragraph “the empty room” from pargraph 12 to 200 it changes all the original pointers FROM P12 TO P200. Really usefull for moving bits and pieces around.
The thing that gets me the most headache is simply feedback.
I’m home brewing my own die rolling system with a lot of similarties to ShadowRun and Dungeon & Dragons.
I use a countdown timer to give the game limitations so I’ll need some play testers later on.
The main concept is to implement a die pool like ShadowRun 4th does.
My main influence due to the free QuickStarter.
I replaced their extensive list of skills with a Modifier system. You have the main stats and a Modifier. So an Archery skill check would be Dexterity + Strength Modifier. The mods are produced by a chart and determined the the secondary attributes primary score. This adjust all skill checks up by 1 in thresholds.
Combat is simplified. At first SR4’s roll back and forth resulted in an excessive amount of die rolling for a single player gamebook. I took a step back and looked at my preffered rpg of D&D, which rolls againts an AC and then for dammage. Now I concluded that would work for this mixed up system. Turn combat into skill checks. Roll against a threshold. If pass apply dammage. Since SR uses a verry low # of dammage points compared to D&D I decided that each ‘hit’ results in a set number of dammage based on the weapon type.
#2 My Main Issue
The problem came up with createing the ‘threshold’ to hit. Or ‘Armor Class’ for this mixed up identify confused system.
I’m thinking take the primary Dodge attribute + the Primary Endure dammage attribute Divide by two, THEN add any extremely low number modifiers as per worn armor or heavy weaponry.
Yes Its how to achive this ‘Players AC’ that has me in a little knit.
With monsters I can ‘fudge’ it considerably since you don’t need to see all their stats. Just attacks and defense. Although I DO create a full stat for the monsters originaly, in the final presentation you don’t get to see it all. Just whats needed to play.
#3 Topic or setting of Game Book.
Its mainly an ‘explore locations, pickup objects as codewords, roll dice for various tasks’ type of thing. Its based on the original 1992 “Alone in the Dark” horror survival video game. (Ald) predates the first resident evil by 6 years. Its purely a fan based createive writeing experiment. Not for sale or resale or anything like that. Just creative writeing fun. Now for those ‘concerned’ about copyright and everything You should Know that I’ve changed a load around. I’m using lovecraft as my main inspiration. Every monster is now unique, disturbingly so. Whereas the video game represented mansion looks like a coat of paint and you could rent it out, mine is a disaster. the description I gave it makes you want to take a match to the place. The old polygon monsters are so differnt from what I describe that Mine are more horrific. Since i use ‘search for x’ as a means of progressing the count down timer i have TONS of additional detail. Paintings never seen, detail never shown, and horrors never present. I read sections to my co-workers and they say its quite descriptive. Which is what im going for, excessive detail and description. The underground cave section has tons of limestone cave descriptive elements not even present in the game. A festival for painting a visual setting. Oh It has tons of grammer errors galore but I’ll work on that AFTER I get the game elements done.
#4 Question
A while back I was in thought and took a step back and though ‘what if you removed all die rolling combat and resorted to code words only.’ I realized all thats left is character interactions. This made me think about how tarot cards are used to represent inter personal relationships. And how each card has a multitude of symbols. Then I realized… -What if- you created an enormous amount of Code-Words at the start of the book in Character-Creation. You’d still pick up a few during the game but in this case your Character determines an enormous amount of how the game plays. Primarily in an open world design with free exploration and dozens of quest… Quest that are locked or opened due to your character based code words. Thus the need for an enormous amount of quest and a large world to explore. This of course could only be presented Digitally. Physical print for such a project would be practicaly impossible.
But I have to ask.
Is there a game book out there that does this already?
Aquire 50% + of the gamebooks ‘codewords’ during character creation?
A guy looking for a load of feedback.
P0ppaC0rg1