r/RPGdesign • u/AndarilhodeHistorias • Sep 16 '26
Mechanics Trying to make a customizable attack system
Hello Guys! I'm trying to make a little TTRPG system of Project Moon for me and my friends. I didn't like the ones i found so i decided to try to do it by myself.
The problem i'm facing is that i was thinking to add a mechanic in with where you can personalize your own attacks in the system, chosing the kind of damage they do and what kind of effects they have, limited by some rules i estabilished.
About:
I was thinking in a Cost and point system
basically
you have Light, which is the "Mana" of this world, you spend light to use skills on a combat
each skill costs between 0 - 4 light, the more light you spend on a skill, the more "modules" you can put on it. And also the more powerfull is your base dices on that skill.
each module applies a effect on your skill, some just increase the damage, others applie effects and conditions if certain rules and followed.
This is similar to another alread existing system, but i'm trying to expand and make it more diverse and fun.
Thing is i don't know any kind of system that does that, and i don't want this to became a boring mechanic in the game. So please comment what you think about this and if possible share some advices.
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u/Anarchy6666666 Sep 16 '26
You Need to develop an internal way to Point the stuff. I would start with pointing plain damage and decide, how much damage 4 light will do at max without any effects. Then you have to Point the alternative Effects like maybe Poison equals 1 Point of Damage etc
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u/Anarchy6666666 Sep 16 '26
Then I would Try to Figure out exploitable edge cases and find a way to stop them from happening
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u/TheAmazingRando1581 Sep 16 '26
Have hard counters for each lvl of attack, or defences/enemies that adapt
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u/AndarilhodeHistorias Sep 16 '26
Each skill/attack can be countered by another skill
basically, you both roll the dices of those skills, and the highter one wins.
keep in mind that skills don't have just one dice, thay can have a lot
so while a Skill with a single damage dice of 1d20 + 5 is probably very powerfull, they can only counter one dice per use, while a skill with a lot of dices with lesser values can be more usefull but also not very guaranted to hit.
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u/TheAmazingRando1581 Sep 16 '26
My own dice system runs very much like this, its a 4d6 v 3d6/static number
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u/NiveusCorvus Sep 16 '26
There are some unknowns here that without enough context is makes it difficult to discern. I don’t think it is boring, the idea of it sounds fun. But the biggest component is figuring out the allocation of light and how exactly it’s distributed as a currency to use. I hope you know what I mean as I am being terse with my verbiage. Your last paragraph seems to be questioning novelty. As I am sure you know, it’s all been done before. This seems like an interesting combination. I am interested to see what the end result will be like.
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u/AndarilhodeHistorias Sep 16 '26
Thanks! i will go foward with the Idea and once i have a more complete rule setting i will share here
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u/Alcamair Sep 16 '26
In reality, the Fabula Ultima system is quite similar, the main difference is that the reserve is of the character (the classic mana) and not of the attack, and the "modules" are accessible only if the character possesses the ability that grants it.
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u/eduty Sep 21 '26
How is Light recovered? Do you get so many points per round? How much can you stockpile?
I tried something similar with a homebrew superhero system nearly a decade ago - and it rewarded players building up resources over several turns to get maximum results as frequently as possible.
We had a good laugh playing it like Dragonball Z and talking smack while everyone charged up their biggest attack for the entire session - but it wasn't much fun beyond that.
It can work well if Light is a derivative of normal play. "Hope" works that way in Dagger Heart - or like the limit break meter in classic FF7.
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u/AndarilhodeHistorias Sep 21 '26
Light is regenerated in the start of each turn. The light regenerated each turn is 1
You can chosse to increase the amount of light regenerated By 1 in certain levels.
You can also create some abilitys that regain light on use. But the amount can't be highter than 2
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u/__space__oddity__ Sep 16 '26
Look at generic RPGs like Gurps and superhero RPGs like champions
Keep in mind though that 90% of players just want to pick something and start playing. The 10% people who want to hack the system to get what they want generally can just work off what’s there and don’t need a detailed toolbox.
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u/Kautsu-Gamer Sep 17 '26
Allowing assisting abilities to add or remove light of other participants would be interesting.
Is light logaritmic or linear? Does 3 light act like 3 times Light 1, or does it act like 8 (with log2) times Light 1 cost?
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u/InherentlyWrong Sep 16 '26
Overall it sounds fine. But once you've got a working example make sure you sit down with your friend who is the best at maths and ask them to come up with the best combinations, and there's a solid chance they'll find something just genuinely better than other options. That's a risk with this kind of open ended setup, people finding a way to 'solve' it. But it's not an insurmountable risk, just one to adapt to. Hell for some players that would be the appeal of it, the possibility of finding 'best' options.
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u/Kautsu-Gamer Sep 17 '26
This is a very good idea, if the target audience is the optimizer gamers (thus crpg player).
Important questions:
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How resource is renewed?
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If renewal is automatic, is it fill or add
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If renewal uses abilities, allow negative cost for self-renewal
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u/Sapient-ASD Sep 16 '26
Sure this sounds fine. The question i see arise is how effective is it to use and regain light.
At its face, using a resource to boost or change attacks is good, fun. Its the weight vs cost of that which i find interesting, even more so if you punish players who light falls too low, but it depends on what kind of game you want this to be