| The Utopia Role-Playing Game System is Finished! |
| It's been a lot of fun to create, and most of it done in just a few weekend cram-sessions! However, eleven months has been dedicated to the refinement of ideas, and a lot of stuff was written and re-written, and I am still in the refinement process. In total, over 10 years have been put to use to create this penultimate game system. Drawing upon 12 years of gaming, modifying rules, throwing bad rules out, and dealing with power-gamers, I consider myself able to put forth reasonable standards. Currently, the basic ruleset weighs in at 54 pages, with more on the way. Not bad for a First Edition game, with only one printed copy in existence. Of course, I still need artwork, and only have currently one illustrator... (zen, zen, he's our man, if he can't do it, No-one can!) Finally, I have a group of players. "JE" is in the process of helping to refine the ruleset, offering tips and advice on the layout and other editorial stuff. Being a set of eyes "outside of the project", an uninitiated player with experience can offer good criticism. Okay, so, What is Utopia? Utopia is the name for a perfect world. It currently exists only in the imaginations of artists and the dreams of our youth. (heh-heh) My role-playing system, when polished, will be just that. Any character from any movie, any play, any comic-book, or any novel can be re-created. Everything from a whip-slashing archeaologist to a superhuman man from another planet, who gets his strange powers from our yellow sun! Q. What genre is it? A. All. The basic ruleset allows for adaptation to any setting. Whether you are playing an mid-evil theif, or a futuristic space kid with a laser sword, the rules allow for everything. Q. Even dragons? a. Even dragons. Q. Okay, what about this: I want to play a former CIA agent gigalo forest ranger. How about that? A. Got it. Q. This might be good. One more. Lets say that I wanted to be a Trenchcoat-wearing immortal with a scottish last name, and an inexplicably japanese sword? A. Got that too. Q. Wow! Really? A. Yup. Q. That is just too cool! How about this: An impossibly cool Wall-street tycoon (and I mean IMPOSSIBLY cool), who makes fat business deals by day, and sets up elaborate museum art thefts by night. His chiseled gritty features and suave ways make him a hit with international insurance agent chicks, who find themselves falling inexorably for his boyish yet sophisticated charm... And he owns a glider. A. Of course... Would you like a martini with that musing? Shaken, I take it, not stirred? Q. Sure! Wow! Q. What sort of character classes do you have? A. Character classes are restrictive, and pigeonhole you into a pre-made template, not of your choosing. In Utopia, you build the character you want, to your exact specifications, every time* Q. *? A. The * indicates that this may not be possible right at first. You may need to pay your GM a torturous sum of money, or get him a date with your really hot sister in order for him to grant you the character points needed to create your uber-god Statbashing hero/villain/psychopath/what-have-you Q. Ah, so it's a point-based system. How useful are experience points. A. Perfectly useful. Using experience points, characters can add new abilities, or enhance their old ones. Stats can be increased, skills can be improved, or the points can be saved up for something really spectacular and big. Q. How is game balance? Is it possible to create some munchkin characters right off the bat? A. Yes. I'm not going to lie or defend this. It's part of life. Any time you set down rules, people will find ways to bastardize those rules for their own benefit. Especially with a rule-system such as Utopia, being as open as it is... Players with creativity, or math skills can find ways to put together seemingly inoccuous merits and flaws, that by themselves, could make any GM wince. Heck, just wait until I get to play "Mage: The Ascension" again. I pity the fool who agrees to Storytell for that one. I figured out how to make a Mage start off with Matter 5. Any takers? Anyone? come-on! I haven't powergamed in a LONG time! I'm ready to fark with some poor schmoe's head! Do we have any schmoes out there? Q. How is the support for the future? A. I will be putting out sourcebooks featuring detailed information on specific game worlds/genres. I have a list of them saved on computer, and I plan to make Utopian Fantasy the first supplement. I may wait to finish two books, and offer players a choice right off the bat. The second will be "Starfront", featuring gaming in the sci-fi future. Q. Back to the system mechanics, what sort of things are possible? A. Well, I believe I have all the bases covered on this one. I have written up very generic "powers". I offer only descriptions of what the end effect is, but not how the effect is achieved. Your character may have a ranged attack, and it's maximum setting is 1d6x10. It's up to you whether it's a stream of fire, a bolt of lightning, a burst of cold, a sphere of flame, a telekinetically charged playing card, or a rabbid hamster you pull out of your coat pocket. It's up to you to decide how your attack sounds, or how it looks. The strength chart will allow you to put together characters that can punch things like the Hulk, or run like the Flash. The powers have different frameworks, you might feed off of life energy, or your powers might be linked to the ebb and flow of magic across the earth. Perhaps you wield True Magic, and shape spells with intuition and imagination. Q. What is the primary genesis for the ruleset? A. The ideas come from several different sources. I've always liked running combat with a d20, just like in AD&D 2nd Edition. I never liked thac0 however, so it's all straight rolls with modifiers. Armor penetration is based off of the weapon you are using, and good rolls won't allow you to magically overcome someone with superior armor. I guess Combat is most closely related to the system you see with Palladium Books. Initiative however, was inspired by Shadowrun, where the higher you roll, the more actions you may take. Unusually fast characters will have bonuses to their initiative rolls, netting them more actions as well, and someone may purchase "fast" maneuvers, which can be completed in less time, again allowing more actions to be taken in combat. Skill usage is based off of the thief skills from AD&D 2nd Ed. I always thought that skill percentages were the best method of determining success. The list however, is universal. Anyone can take any skill, provided they have percentage points to distribute to it. Hit points and damage are fairly universal in many games, but I have a fairly unique take on it, with two levels of damage, Hit Points and Stun. They are directly linked to the penetration value of the weapon used on the attack, and the armor used to defend. Experience points are spent to increase powers, skills, or attributes. Experience however is not as potent as the character points initially allotted to a character. |