Breaking a Game by Making Things

Sage Abilities in my game are constructed to achieve three purposes: (a) to express what players are able to do; (b) to express what players are not able to do; and (c) to define the amount of knowledge which player and non-player characters alike possess about the world.

(a) & (b) are simple enough.  If the character wants to sail a boat, unlike the "feats" of most other games, the sage ability does not provide a percentage the character rolls to make "the attempt."  Instead, in reference to purpose (a), it clearly defines what the player can do without any possibility of failure, with a progressive chance of failure in the face of increasing danger.  With reference to purpose (b), it says if you don't have such-and-such a skill, then you don't know anything about sailing, and you cannot even remotely make an attempt.  The character simply doesn't know how to ride a horse into battle or make a poison.

This expands the division between player characters past their character classes.  Even if the party relies on two fighters, together they rely on Jim's understanding of logistics in order to manage the animals, and on Jack's knowledge of sailing in order to steer the boat.  Jack doesn't know anything, or perhaps very little about logistics; and Jim doesn't know anything about sailing.  It doesn't matter that they're both fighters.  They are not interchangeable, and that is very important.

(c) is a bit trickier to understand.  There are a great number of sage ability groupings, called "studies," that a player might look at and think, "I would never take that for my character."  For example, they would never specialize in pottery-making, instruction or mosses & ferns.  That would be utterly crazy!  So they wonder, why are these things even listed?  Who are they for?

They're not for player characters ... they are for non-player characters.  And while on the surface they may seem silly or useless for power gamers and survivalists, each adds its own peculiar element to the game world.  It doesn't matter that a player never gets interested in natural astronomy or falconry.  These things still exist, outside the player's prejudices -- and individually, they each offer a field of endeavour which the players potentially do not possess, and therefore, if they come up in an adventure or as an obstacle, the players will have to apply themselves to a non-player character to solve that problem for them.

The way the system works, however, there is another consideration.  Although the system does function on choice, in that players choose which studies and fields (which are groups of studies) in which to specialize, what they are choosing is essentially how fast they will gain knowledge in those specialties.  In fact, each character class steadily gains knowledge in ALL fields and studies -- and will generally, by 6th or 7th level, will have gained useful, applicable abilities in all or most of them.  This means that although Jim will never be the sailor that Jack is, he will someday be able to sail a boat.  And Jack will learn enough about logistics to get by and be effective in that area of achievement.  So, while characters do make choices, the pain of losing out on "the choice not made" is mitigated.  All high-levelled characters, in time, become multi-talented.  It is this that I think is the true genius of the sage abilities format.

The drawback is, of course, that the task of transforming all human knowledge into sage abilities is impossibly huge and will never be completed.  But, well, there's give and take with everything.

Now and then, I decide to add a sage ability that I know is going to be an absolute favorite with players.  Puissance is a study that enables fighters to be much more powerful fighters.  Right from the start, it reduces the chance of dropping a weapon into an enemy's hex, it adds bonuses to hit, it enables the use of the shield as a weapon, it increases range with thrown weapons and so on.  As the player progresses, they gain the ability to feint, use two weapons with lesser penalties, and even go berserk at will (eventually).  Naturally, every character that really wants to be a tough, kick-ass fighter will jump for this study, and forego things like riding horses, owning dogs, leading men and so on.

Recently, I decided to shift around mage sage abilities and illusionist sage abilities so that the two lists were not so nearly the same.  This meant adding "black magic", including golems and magic fabrication, into the mage sphere (and you know the latter is going to be like puissance).  And it has meant adding "unreality" into the illusionist sphere -- because, logically, we can imagine "illusion" being an additive to things that aren't exactly the standard cup of tea.

Because the new online player in my Juvenis campaign (and yes, I'm sorry I haven't kept up with editing that, I'll try to get at it), opted for an illusionist, they also opted for the study, "Steam & Gasgear."  Yes, that's right.  Steampunk.

This is very new, very untested work, and no, it isn't remotely done as a page.  And it won't be, since it will take time.  Marcule has let me know that he's fine with that.  There are three keys that I'm incorporating with the study that are an attempt not to break the game, though obviously there could be the power in the content here to do that.  The first is that while the stuff being made is somewhat equivalent to giving out soft-core magic items, the "maintenance" limits the number that can be made and be expected to function on any given day.  The second is that these items are not made for the illusionist alone: they can be shared around the party, so that everyone can enjoy the fun.  Finally, if the illusionist gets beaten up and knocked unconscious, the inability of performing this maintenance will mean that none of the gadgets will work.

It is a sort of "spell" concept, where time has to be spent preparing the items ... and though they function like magic, they are so tenuous in construction that if they're not fiddled with every day, they're useless.  Finally, there's a limit to how many things the illusionist can keep in working order, which goes up as the illusionist gains levels.

The reader should also realize that, while any illusionist is sure to take the study right off, even if they don't, sooner or later, the higher-level illusionist WILL be able to make a gas pistol.

It's a fun concept, and one I must admit I think is very kewl and desirable from my end.  I don't mind incorporating a little steampunk into my game, though I definitely want to call it something else, so that I'm not beholden to anyone's tempestuous ire and indignation because my world does not take place in the 19th century and "steampunk doesn't work like that," etcetera.  I can say, "This isn't steampunk," while fully appreciating that it is, obviously, steampunk.